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HISTORICAL SOURCE 

BOOK 



BY 

HUTTON WEBSTER, Ph.D. 

PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA 



*' The most ingenious and the most eloquent 
of modern historical discourses can after all 
be nothing more than a comment on a text." 

— E. A. Freeman, Methods of Historical Study 



D. C. HEATH AND CO., PUBLISHERS 

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 

t" ^ . — 



2.U M? W 



WEBSTER'S HISTORIES 



^ 



Webster's Ancient History 

From prehistoric times to the Age of Charlemagne 

Webster's Medieval and Modern History 

From the fall of Rome to the present 

Webster's Early European History 

From prehistoric times to the seventeenth century 

Webster's Modem European History 

From the Age of Louis XIV to the present: a year's course 

Webster's European History 
Part I — Ancient Times 

Ancient history and civilization 

Part n — Medieval and Early Modern Times 

From the fall of Rome to the seventeenth century 

Part HI — Modern Times 

From the Age of Louis XIV to the present: a brief course 

Webster's Readings in Ancient History 

Webster's Readings in Medieval and Modern History 

Webster's Historical Source Book 



COPYRIGHT, 1920 
BY D. C. HEATH & CO. 
2 KO 



jEC -9 1920 



©C!,Ae01982 



PREFACE 

My Readings in Ancient History and Readings in Medieval and 
Modern History, published some years ago, were intended to provide 
high-school students of history with a considerable body of narrative 
and biographical material, for use in connection with their text- 
book. I now put forth this third volume of thirty-three documents. 
All but the first two relate to the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, 
and twentieth centuries. 

Two principal motives have dictated the selection of these par- 
ticular documents, out of the hundreds which might have been chosen. 
First, I wished to exhibit the historical development in England and 
America, and later on the Continent, of orderly, constitutional, and 
democratic government. From this point of view, an intimate ac- 
quaintance v/ith Magna Carta, the Petition of Right, the Bill of 
Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Northwest Ordinance, 
the Constitution of the United States, and the Declaration of the 
Rights of Man is of supreme value to every intelligent American 
citizen. Second, I wished to trace the growth of international law 
and of international relations, generally, as registered in such state 
papers as the Monroe Doctrine, the Durham Report, the Declaration 
of Paris, the Peace Circular of Nicholas II, and the Covenant of the 
League of Nations. Few at this time will deny their epoch-making 
significance for mankind. 

It is not expected that every student will read every document. 
A proper choice must be made by the teacher, in accordance with the 
scope and character of her instruction and the maturity of her class. 
Moreover, some of the longer documents (especially Nos. i, 5, 6, 7, 
9, 13, and 14) will doubtless never be read in extenso. To facilitate 
omissions and to aid in the comprehension of the subject matter, 
I have retained the numbered articles and sections appearing in many 
of the documents and elsewhere have myself supplied them. 

The documents are reprinted in their original form without 
verbal change. No omissions have been made, except as indicated. 
Spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been modernized 

iii 



iv Preface 

throughout, though it has been difficult to preserve entire uniformity 
in these respects. Brief editorial introductions, a few notes which 
seemed to be indispensable, and an index and pronouncing vocabulary 
complete the equipment of the book. 

I am under great obligations to James MacLehose and Sons, of 
Glasgow, for permission to use the now standard translation of 
Magna Carta by Professor W. S. McKechnie. The version of the 
Confirmation of the Charters is that by Bishop Stubbs, as revised 
by Mr. H. W. C. Davis. Three French Revolutionary documents 
are taken by permission from the Translations and Reprints published 
by the Department of History, University of Pennsylvania, and from 
Professor F. M. Anderson's well known collection illustrating the 
modern history of France. The other documents are transcribed 
from official or semi-official sources, as indicated in the foot-notes. 

HuTTON Webster 

Lincoln, Nebraska 
August, ig2o 



CONTENTS 

NO. PAGE 

1. The Great Charter, 1215 i 

2. Confirmation of the Charters, 1297 14 

3. Mayflower Compact, 1620 17 

4. Petition of Right, 1628 18 

5. New England Confederation, 1643 22 

6. Instrument of Government, 1653 29 

Habeas Corpus Act, 1679 40 

Bill of Rights, 1689 50 

Act of Settlement, 1701 58 

Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress, 1765 63 

Virginia Bill of Rights, 1776 66 

Declaration of Independence, 1776 69 

Articles of Confederation, 1778 74 

Northwest Ordinance, 1787 83 

Constitution of the United States, 1787 91 

Decree Abolishing the Feudal System, 1789 109 

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, 

1789 113 

Address to All Peoples, 1792 116 

Washington's Farewell Address, 1796 120 

Holy Alliance, 181 5 136 

Monroe Doctrine, 1823 139 

Chartist Petition, 1838 143 

Durham Report, 1839 147 

Communist Manifesto, 1848 r. . . . 155 

Declaration of Paris, 1856 167 

Lincoln's First Inaugural Address, 1861 169 

Gettysburg Address, 1863 178 

Peace Circular of Nicholas II, 1898 179 

Final Act of the First Hague Peace Conference, 

1899 181 

Roosevelt's Inaugural Address, 1905 184 

Wilson's Fourteen Points, 1918 187 

Declaration of Independence of the Czecho-Slovak 

Nation, 1918 190 

Covenant of the League of Nations, 1919 194 

Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary 207 

V 



HISTORICAL SOURCE BOOK 

1. THE GREAT CHARTER, 1215 ^ 

Magna Carta stands foremost among the great documents 
which estabhshed the Hberties of EngUshmen. Nevertheless, 
it did not form an innovation. King John's predecessors, 
Henry I, Stephen, and Henry II, had issued coronation or acces- 
sion charters restricting the authority of the sovereign in favor 
of nobles, clergy, and commons. Magna Carta was suggested 
by and based upon these earlier grants. The barons who 
forced it on the king took care that it should be widely known 
and distributed sealed copies throughout the land. Of these, 
four are still in existence : two in the British Museum and two 
in the cathedrals of Lincoln and Salisbury, respectively. The 
division of the document into a preamble and sixty-three ar- 
ticles is not found in any of the original copies; it is a modern 
device for convenience of reference. Much of the charter can- 
not now be understood without special research in English 
constitutional and legal history. Every student should be 
familiar, however, with at least articles I, XII, XIII, XIV, 
XV, XX, XXVIII, XXIX, XXXIX-XLII, XLV, LI, LXI, 
and LXIII. 

The Great Charter, 1215 

John, by the grace of God, king of England, lord of Ireland, duke 
of Normandy and Aquitaine, and count of Anjou, to the archbishops, 
bishops, abbots, earls, barons, justiciars, foresters, sheriffs, stewards, 
servants, and to all his bailiffs and liege subjects, greeting. Know 
that, having regard to God and for the salvation of our souls, and those 
of all our ancestors and heirs, and unto the honor of God and the ad- 
vancement of Holy Church, and for the reform of our realm, by ad- 
vice of our venerable^ fathers, Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, 

1 W. S. McKechnie, Magna Carta, pp. 185-479, passim. Second Edition. 
Glasgow, 1914. James MacLehose and Sons. 



2 Historical Source Book 

primate of all England, and cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, 
Henry, archbishop of Dublin, William of London, Peter of Winchester, 
Jocelyn of Bath and Glastonbury, Hugh of Lincoln, Walter of Wor- 
•cester, WiUiam of Coventry, Benedict of Rochester, bishops: of master 
Pandulf, subdeacon and member of the household of our lord the 
Pope, of brother Aymeric (master of the Knights of the Temple in 
England), and of the illustrious men William Marshal, earl of Pem- 
broke, William, earl of Salisbury, William, earl[of]Warenne, William, 
earl of Arundel, Alan of Galloway (constable of Scotland), Waren 
Fitz Gerald, Peter Fitz Herbert, Hubert de Burgh (seneschal of 
Poitou), Hugh de Neville, Matthew Fitz Herbert, Thomas Basset, 
i\lan Bassett, Philip d'Aubigny, Robert of Roppesley, John Marshal, 
John Fitz Hugh, and others, our liegemen. 

I. In the first place, we have granted to God, and by this our 
present charter confirmed for us and our heirs forever that the English 
Church shall be free, and shall have her rights entire, and her liber- 
ties inviolate: and we will that it be thus observed; which is apparent 
from this that the freedom of elections, which is reckoned most im- 
portant and very essential to the English Church, we, of our pure and 
unconstrained will, did grant, and did by our charter confirm and did 
obtain the ratification of the same from our lord, Pope Innocent III, 
before the quarrel arose between us and our barons: and this we will 
observe, and our will is that it be observed in good faith by our heirs 
forever. We have also granted to all freemen of our kingdom, for 
us and our heirs forever, aU the underwritten liberties, to be had and 
held by them and their heirs, of us and our heirs forever. 

II. If any of our earls or barons, or others holding of us in chief 
by military service shall have died, and at the time of his death his 
heir shall be full of age and owe rehef , he shall have his inheritance on 
payment of the ancient relief, namely, the heir or heirs of an earl, 
£ioo for a whole earl's barony; the heir or heirs of a baron, £ioo 
for a whole barony; the heir or heirs of a knight, loo s. at most for a 
whole knight's fee; and whoever owes less let him give less, according 
to the ancient custom of fiefs. 

III. If, however, the heir of any of the aforesaid has been under 
age and in wardship, let him have his inheritance without relief and 
without fine when he comes of age, 

IV. The guardian of the land of an heir who is thus under age 
shall take from the land of the heir nothing but reasonable produce, 
reasonable customs, and reasonable services, and that without de- 



The Great Charter 3 

struction or waste of men or goods; and if we have committed the 
wardship of the lands of any such minor to the sheriff, or to any other 
who is responsible to us for its issues, and he has made destruction or 
waste of what he holds in wardship, we will take of him amends, and 
the land shall be committed to two lawful and discreet men of that 
fee, who shall be responsible for the issues to us or to him to whom 
we shall assign them; and if we have given or sold the wardship of 
any such land to any one and he has therein made destruction or 
waste, he shall lose that wardship, and it shall be transferred to two 
lawful and discreet men of that fief, who shall be responsible to us 
in like manner as aforesaid. 

V. The guardian, morever, so long as he has the wardship of the 
land, shall keep up the houses, parks, fishponds, stanks, mills, and 
other things pertaining to the land, out of the issues of the same land 
and he shall restore to the heir, when he has come to full age, all his 
land, stocked with plows and " waynage," ^ according as the season of 
husbandry shall require, and the issues of the land can reasonably bear. 

VI. Heirs shall be married without disparagement, yet so that 
before the marriage takes place the nearest in blood to that heir shall 
have notice. 

VII. A widow, after the death of her husband, shall forthwith 
and without difficulty have her marriage portion and inheritance; 
nor shall she give anything for her dower, or for her marriage portion, 
or for the inheritance which her husband and she held on the day of 
the death of that husband, ; and she may remain in the house of her 
husband for forty days after his death, within which time her dower 
shall be assigned to her. 

VIII. No widow shall be compelled to marry, so long as she 
prefers to live without a husband; provided always that she gives 
security not to marry without our consent, if she holds of us, or with- 
out the consent of the lord of whom she holds, if she holds of another. 

IX. Neither we nor our bailiffs shall seize any land or rent for any 
debt, so long as the chattels of the debtor are sufficient to repay the 
debt ; nor shall the sureties of the debtor be distrained so long as the 
principal debtor is able to satisfy the debt ; and if the principal debtor 
shall fail to pay the debt, having nothing wherewith to pay it, then 
the sureties shall answer for the debt; and let them have the lands 
and rents of the debtor, if they desire them, until they are indemni- 
fied for the debt which they have paid for him, unless the principal 

^ A word of uncertain meaning. 



M' 



4 Historical Source Book 

debtor can show proof that he is discharged thereof as against the said 
sureties. 

X. If one who has borrowed from the Jews any sum, great or 
small, die before that loan can be repaid, the debt shall not bear in- 
terest while the heir is under age, of whomsoever he may hold; and 
if the debt fall into our hands, we will not take anything except the 
principal sum contained in the bond. 

XI. And if any one die indebted to the Jews, his wife shall have 
her dower and pay nothing of that debt; and if any children of the 
deceased are left under age, necessaries shall be provided for them 
in keeping with the holding of the deceased; and out of the residue 
the debt shall be paid, reserving, however, service due to feudal 
lords; in Hke manner let it be done touching debts due to others 
than Jews. 

XII. No scutage ^ nor aid ^ shall be imposed on our kingdom, 
unless by common counsel of our kingdom, except for ransoming our 
person, for making our eldest son a knight, and for once marrying 
our eldest daughter; and for these there shall not be levied more 
than a reasonable aid. In like manner it shall be done concerning 
aids from the city of London. 

XIII. And the city of London shall have all its ancient liberties 
and free customs, as well by land as by water; furthermore, we decree 
and grant that all other cities, boroughs, towns, and ports shall have 
all their liberties and free customs. 

XIV. And for obtaining the common counsel of the kingdom 
anent the assessing of an aid (except in the three cases aforesaid) or 
of a scutage, we will cause to be summoned the archbishops, bishops, 
abbots, earls, and greater barons, severally by our letters; and we 
will moreover cause to be summoned generally, through our sheriffs 
and bailiffs, all others who hold of us in chief, for a fixed date, namely, 
after the expiry of at least forty days, and at a fixed place; and in all 
letters of such summons we will specify the reason of the summons. 
And when the summons has thus been made, the business shall pro- 
ceed on the day appointed, according to the counsel of such as are 
present, although not all who were summoned have come. 

XV. We will not for the future grant to any one license to 
take an aid from his own free tenants, except to ransom his body, to 

* Scutage was a direct tax in commutation for military service. 
2 The three aids were direct taxes paid by the tenant to his lord upon the three 
occasions here specified. 



The Great Charter 5 

make his eldest son a knight, and once to marry his eldest daughter; 
and on each of these occasions there shall be levied only a reason- 
able aid. 

XVI. No one shall be distrained for performance of greater serv- 
ice for a knight's fee, or for any other free temement, than is due 
therefrom. 

XVII. Common pleas ^ shaU not follow our court, but shall be held 
in some fixed place. 

XVIII. Inquests of novel disseisin,'^ of mort d'ancestor,^ and of 
darrein presentment ^ shall not be held elsewhere than in their own 
county courts and that in manner following: We, or, if we should 
be out of the realm, our chief justiciar, will send two justiciars through 
every county four times a year, who shall, along with four knights of 
the county chosen by the county, hold the said assizes ^ in the county 
court, on the day and in the place of meeting of that court. 

XIX. And if any of the said assizes cannot be taken on the day 
of the county court, let there remain of the knights and freeholders, 
who were present at the county court on that day, as many as may 
be required for the efficient making of judgments, according as the 
business be more or less. 

XX. A freeman shall not be amerced for a slight offense, except in 
accordance with the degree of the offense; and for a grave offense 
he shall be amerced in accordance with the gravity of the offense, yet 
saving always his " contenement " ; ^ and a merchant in the same 
way, saving his "merchandise"; and a villein shall be amerced in 
the same way, saving his "waynage" — if they have fallen into 
our mercy: and none of the aforesaid amercements ^ shall be imposed 
except by the oath of honest men in the neighborhood. 

XXI. Earls and barons shall not be amerced except through their 
peers, and only in accordance with the degree of the offense. 

XXII. A clerk shall not be amerced in respect of his lay holding 
except after the manner of the others aforesaid: further, he shall 

^ That is, law suits in which the Crown had no special interest. 

2 Dispossession. 

3 Death of the ancestor; that is, in cases of disputed possession to land. 
^ Last presentation to a benefice. 

5 The word "assize" here means an assembly of knights or other substantial 
persons, held at a certain time and place where they sit with the justiciar. 

^ That by which a person subsists and which is essential to his rank in life. 

^ An amercement was a payment demanded from a wrongdoer, who wished to 
buy himself back under protection of the law. 



6 Historical Source Book 

not be amerced in accordance with the extent of his ecclesiastical 
benefice. 

XXIII. No village or individual shall be compelled to make 
bridges at river banks, except those who from of old were legally- 
bound to do so. 

XXIV. No sheriff, constable, coroners, or others of our bailiffs 
shall hold pleas of our Crown. ^ 

XXV. All counties, hundreds, wapentakes, and trithings (except 
our demesne manors) shall remain at the old rents, and without any- 
additional payment.^ 

XXVI. If any one holding of us a lay fief shall die, and our sheriff 
or bailiff shall exhibit our letters patent of summons for a debt which 
the deceased owed to us, it shall be lawful for our sheriff or bailiff 
to attach and catalogue chattels of the deceased, found upon the lay 
fief, to the value of that debt, at the sight of law-worthy men, provided 
always that nothing whatever be thence removed until the debt which 
is evident shall be fully paid to us; and the residue shall be left to the 
executors to fulfill the will of the deceased; and if there be nothing 
due from him to us, all the chattels shall go to the deceased, saving 
to his wife and children their reasonable shares. 

XXVII. If any freeman shall die intestate, his chattels shall be 
distributed by the hands of his nearest kinsfolk and friends, under 
supervision of the Church, saving to every one the debts which the 
deceased owed to him. 

XX\T;II. No constable or other bailiff of ours shall take corn or 
other provisions from any one without immediately tendering money 
therefor, unless he can have postponement thereof by permission of 
the seller. 

XXIX. No constable shall compel any knight to give money in 
lieu of castle-guard, when he is willing to perform it in his own per- 
son, or (if he himself cannot do it from any reasonable cause) then by 
another responsible man. Further, if we have led or sent him upon 
military service, he shall be relieved from guard in proportion to the 
time during which he has been on service because of us. 

XXX. No sheriff or bailiff of ours, or other person, shall take 

* These are suits conducted in the name of the Crown against criminals. 

2 Counties or shires in England were subdivided into smaller districts known 
as hundreds in the south and as wapentakes in the Danish districts of the north. 
Intermediate divisions called trithings or ridings existed in some of the large 
counties. 



The Great Charter 7 

the horses or carts of any freeman for transport duty, against the will 
of the said freeman. 

XXXI. Neither we nor our bailiffs shall take, for our castles or 
for any other work of ours, wood which is not ours, against the will 
of the owner of that wood. 

XXXII. We will not retain beyond one year and one day the 
lands of those who have been convicted of felony, and the lands shall 
thereafter be handed over to the lords of the fiefs. ^ 

XXXIII. All kyddels '^ for the future shall be removed altogether 
from Thames and Medway, and throughout all England, except 
upon the seashore. 

XXXIV. The writ which is called prcecipe shall not for the future 
be issued to any one, regarding any tenement whereby a freeman 
may lose his court. ^ 

XXXV. Let there be one measure of wine throughout our whole 
realm; and one measure of ale; and one measure of corn, to wit, the 
"London quarter"; and one width of cloth (whether dyed, or russet, 
or "halberget"), to wit, two ells within the selvedges; of weights 
also let it be as of measures. 

XXXVI. Nothing in future shall be given or taken for a writ 
of inquisition of Hfe or limbs, but freely it shall be granted, and never 
denied.'* 

XXXVII. If any one holds of us by fee-farm, by socage, or by 
burgage, and holds also land of another lord by knight's service, we 
will not (by reason of that fee-farm, socage, or burgage) have the 
wardship of the heir, or of such land of his as is of the fief of that other; 
nor shall we have wardship of that fee-farm, socage, or burgage, un- 
less such fee-farm owes kriight's service. We will not by reason of 
any small serjeanty which any one may hold of us by the service of 
rendering, to us knives, arrows, or the like, have wardship of his heir 
or of the land which he holds of another lord by knight's service. 

XXXVIII. No bailiff for the future shall, upon his own unsup- 
ported complaint, put any one to his "law," ^ without credible wit- 
nesses brought for this purpose. 

1 Forfeiture for felony was abolished by laws passed in the reign of Queen Victoria. 

2 Fish-weirs. 

3 The effect of the writ prcecipe was to remove certain cases from the courts of 
the feudal lords to the king's court. 

* The writ of inquisition here mentioned has nothing to do with the writ of 
habeas corpus. 

^ Perhaps equivalent to compelling his submission to the ordeal. 



8 Historical Source Book 

XXXIX. No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised 
or exiled or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him nor send 
upon him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law 
of the land.^ 

XL, To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay, 
right or justice. 

XLI. All merchants shaU have safe and secure exit from England, 
and entry to England, with the right to tarry there and to move about 
as well by land as by water, for buying and selling by the ancient and 
right customs, quit from all evil tolls, except (in time of war) such 
merchants as are of the land at war with us. And if such are found 
in our land at the beginning of the war, they shall be detained, with- 
out injury to their bodies or goods, until information be received by 
us, or by our chief justiciar, how the merchants of our land found in 
the land at war with us are treated; and if our men are safe there, 
the others shall be safe in our land. 

XLII. It shall be lawful in the future for any one (excepting al- 
ways those imprisoned or outlawed in accordance with the law of the 
kingdom, and natives of any country at war with us, and merchants, 
who shall be treated as is above provided) to leave our kingdom and 
to return, safe and secure by land and water, except for a short period 
in time of war, on grounds of public policy — reserving always the 
allegiance due to us. 

XLIII. If any one holding of some escheat ^ (such as the honor 
of Wallingford, Nottingham, Boulogne, Lancaster, or of other es- 
cheats which are in our hands and are baronies) shall die, his heirs 
shaU give no other relief, and perform no other service to us than he 
would have done to the baron, if that barony had been in the baron's 
hand; and we shall hold it in the same manner in which the baron 
held it. 

XLIV. Men who dwell without the forest need not henceforth 
come before our justiciars of the forest upon a general summons, ex- 
cept those who are impleaded, or who have become sureties for any 
person or persons attached for forest offenses. 

XLV. We will appoint as justices, constables, sheriffs, or bailiffs 
only such as know the law of the realm and mean to observe it well. 

* This famous article, requiring judgment of peers, has been often and errone- 
ously identified with trial by jur\'. 

2 An escheat refers to the return of an estate to a lord, either on failure of 
tenant's issue or on his committing a felony. 



The Great Charter 9 

XL VI. All barons who have founded abbeys, concerning which 
they hold charters from the kings of England, or of which they have 
long-continued possession, shall have the wardship of them, when 
vacant, as they ought to have. 

XL VII. AU forests that have been made such in our time shall 
forthwith be disafforested; and a similar course shall be followed with 
regard to river banks that have been placed ''in defense" ^ by us in 
our tinie. ' — ■ 

XL VIII. All evil customs connected with forests and warrens, 
foresters and warreners, sheriffs and their officers, river banks and their 
wardens, shall immediately be inquired into in each county by twelve 
Sworn knights of the same county chosen by the honest men of the 
same county, and shall, within forty days of the said inquest, be 
utterly abolished, so as never to be restored, provided always that 
we previously have intimation thereof, or our justiciar, if we should 
not be in England. 

XLIX. We will immediately restore all hostages and charters 
delivered to us by Englishmen, as sureties of the peace or of faithful 
service. 

L. We will entirely remove from their bailiwicks the relations 
of Gerard of Athee (so that in the future they shall have no bailiwick 
in England) ; namely, Engelard of Cigogne, Peter, Guy, and Andrew 
of Chanceaux, Guy of Cigogne, Geoffrey of Martigny with his brothers, 
PhiUp Mark with his brothers and his nephew Geoffrey, and the 
whole brood of the same.^ 

LI. As soon as peace is restored, we will banish from the kingdom 
aU foreign-born knights, crossbowmen, Serjeants, and mercenary 
soldiers, who have come with horses and arms to the kingdom's hurt. 

LII. If any one has been dispossessed or removed by us, without 
the legal judgment of his peers, from his lands, castles, franchises, 
or from his right, we will immediately restore them to him; and if 
a dispute arise over this, then let it be decided by the five-and-twenty 
barons of whom mention is made below in the clause for securing the 
peace. ^ Moreover, for all those possessions, from which any one 
has, without the lawful judgment of his peers, been disseised or re- 
moved, by our father, King Henry, or by our brother, King Richard, 

1 That is, reserved for the king's exclusive use when engaged in fakonry. 

2 These French adherents of King John were especially abnoxious to the barons 
and feared by them. 

3 Article LXI. 



lo Historical Source Book 

and which we retain in our hand (or which are possessed by others, 
to whom we are bound to warrant them) we shall have respite until 
;the usual term of crusaders; excepting those things about which a 
plea has been raised, or an inquest made by our order, before our 
taking of the cross; but as soon as we return from our expedition i 
(or if perchance we desist from the expedition) , we will immediately 
grant full justice therein. 

LIII. We shall have, moreover, the same respite and in the same 
manner in rendering justice concerning the disaff orestation or* reten- 
tion of those forests which Henry our father and Richard our brother 
afforested, and concerning the wardship of lands which are of the fief 
of another (namely, such wardships as we have hitherto had by 
reason of a fief which any one held of us by knight's service), and 
concerning abbeys founded on other fiefs than our own, in which the 
lord of the fief claims to have right; and when we have returned, or 
if we desist from our expedition, we will immediately grant full justice 
to all who complain of such things. 

LIV. No one shall be arrested or imprisoned upon the appeaP 
of a woman, for the death of any other than her husband. 

LV. All fines made with us unjustly and against the law of the 
land, and all amercements imposed unjustly and against the law of 
the land, shall be entirely remitted, or else it shall be done concerning 
them according to the decision of the five-and-twenty barons of whom 
mention is made below in the clause for securing the peace, or accord- 
ing to the judgment of the majority of the same, along with the afore- 
said Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, if he can be present, and 
such others as he may wish to bring with him for this purpose, and 
if he cannot be present the business shall nevertheless proceed with- 
out him, provided always that if any one or more of the aforesaid 
five-and-twenty barons are in a similar suit, they shall be removed 
as far as concerns this particular judgment, others being substituted 
in their places after having been selected by the rest of the same 
five-and-twenty for this purpose only, and after having been sworn. 

LVI. If we have disseised or removed Welshmen from lands or 
liberties, or other things, without the legal judgment of their peers 
in England or in Wales, they shall be immediately restored to them; 
and if a dispute arise over this, then let it be decided in the marches 
by the judgment of their peers; for tenements in England according 

^ An "appeal" here signifies an accusation followed by a judicial duel between 
the appellant and appellee. 



The Great Charter ii 

to the law of England, for tenements in Wales, according to the law 
of Wales, and for tenements in the march according to the law of 
the marches. Welshmen shall do the same to us and ours. 

LVII. Further, for all those possessions from which any Welsh- 
man has, without the lawful judgment of his peers, been disseised 
or removed by King Henry our father, or King Richard our brother, 
and which we retain in our hand (or which are possessed by others, 
to whom we are bound to warrant them) we shall have respite until 
the usual term of crusaders; excepting those things about which a 
plea has been raised or an inquest made by our order before we took 
the cross; but as soon as we return (or if perchance we desist from our 
expedition), we will immediately grant full justice in accordance with 
the laws of the Welsh and in relation to the aforesaid regions. 

LVIII. We will immediately give up the son of Llywelyn and all 
the hostages of Wales, and the charters delivered to us as security for 
the peace. 

LIX. We will do toward Alexander, king of Scots, concerning the 
return of his sisters and his hostages, and concerning his franchises, 
and his right, in the same manner as we shall do toward our other 
barons of England, unless it ought to be otherwise according to the 
charters which we hold from William his father, formerly king of 
Scots; and this shall be according to the judgment of his peers in our 
court. 

LX. Moreover, all these aforesaid customs and liberties, the 
observance of which we have granted in our kingdom as far as per- 
tains to us toward our men, shall be observed by all of our kingdom, 
as well clergy as laymen, as far as pertains to them toward their men. 

LXI. Since, moreover, for God and the amendment of our king- 
dom and for the better allaying of the quarrel that has arisen be- 
tween us and our barons, we have granted all these concessions, 
desirous that they should enjoy them in complete and firm endurance 
forever, we give and grant to them the under- written security, namely, 
that the barons choose five-and-twenty barons of the kingdom, whom- 
soever they will, who shall be bound with all their might to observe 
and hold, and cause to be observed, the peace and liberties we have 
granted and confirmed to them by this our present charter, so that 
if we, or our justiciar, or our bailiffs, or any one of our officers, shall 
in anything be at fault toward any one, or shall have broken any 
one of the articles of the peace or of this security, and the offense be 
notified to four barons of the aforesaid five-and-twenty, the said four 



12 Historical Source Book 

barons shall repair to us (or our justiciar, if we are out of the realm) 
and, laying the transgression before us, petition to have that trans- 
gression redressed without delay. And if we shall not have corrected 
the transgression (or, in the event of our being out of the realm, if 
our justiciar shall not have corrected it) within, forty days, reckoning 
from the time it has been intimated to us (or to our justiciar, if we 
should be out of the realm) , the four barons aforesaid shall refer that 
matter to the rest of the five-and-twenty barons, and those five-and- 
twenty barons shall, together with the community of the whole land, 
distrain and distress us in all possible ways, namely, by seizing our 
castles, lands, possessions, and in any other way they can, until re- 
dress has been obtained as they deem fit, saving harmless our own 
person, and the persons of our queen and children; and when redress 
has been obtained, they shall resume their old relations toward us. 
And let whoever in the country desires it swear to obey the orders 
of the said five-and-twenty barons for the execution of all the afore- 
said matters, and along with them, to molest us to the utmost of his 
power; and we publicly and freely grant leave to every one who 
wishes to swear, and we shall never forbid any one to swear. All 
those, moreover, in the land who of themselves and of their own accord 
are unwilling to swear to the twenty-five to help them in constraining 
and molesting us, we shall by our command compel the same to swear 
to the effect aforesaid. And if any one of the five-and-twenty barons 
shall have died or departed from the land, or be incapacitated in any 
other manner which would prevent the aforesaid provisions being 
carried out, those of the said twenty-five barons who are left shall 
choose another in his place according to their own judgment, and he 
shall be sworn in the same way as the others. Further, in all matters, 
the execution of which is intrusted to these twenty-five barons, if per- 
chance these twenty-five are present and disagree about anything, or 
if some of them, after being summoned, are unwilling or unable to be 
present, that which the majority of those present ordain or command 
shall be held as fixed and established, exactly as if the whole twenty- 
five had concurred in this; and the said twenty-five shall swear that 
they will faithfully observe all that is aforesaid, and cause it to be 
observed with all their might. And we shall procure nothing from 
any one, directly or indirectly, whereby any part of these conces- 
sions and liberties might be revoked or diminished; and if any such 
thing has been procured, let it be void and null, and we shall never 
use it personally or by another. 



The Great Charter 13 

LXII. And all the ill-will, hatreds, and bitterness that have 
arisen between. us and our men, clergy and lay, from the date of the 
quarrel, we have completely remitted and pardoned to every one. 
Moreover, all trespasses occasioned by the said quarrel, from Easter 
in the sixteenth year of our reign till the restoration of peace, we have 
fully remitted to all, both clergy and laymen, and completely forgiven, 
as far as pertains to us. And, on this head, w^e have caused to be 
made forHhem letters testimonial patent of the lord Stephen, arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, of the lord Henry, archbishop of Dublin, of 
the bishops aforesaid, and of Master Pandulf as touching this security 
and the concessions aforesaid. 

LXIII. Wherefore it is our will, and we firmly enjoin, that the 
English Church be free, and that the men in our kingdom have and 
hold all the aforesaid liberties, rights, and concessions, well and peace- 
ably, freely and quietly, fully and wholly, for themselves and their 
heirs, of us and our heirs, in all respect and in all places forever, as is 
aforesaid. An oath, moreover, has been taken, as well on our part 
as on the part of the barons, that all these conditions aforesaid shall 
be kept in good faith and without evil intent. Given under our hand 
— the above-named and many others being witnesses — in the 
meadow which is called Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines, 
on the fifteenth day of June, in the seventeenth year of our reign. 



2. CONFIRMATION OF THE CHARTERS, 1297 ^ 

Not less than thirty-eight distinct confirmations of the Great 
Charter, by sovereigns subsequent to John, are recorded. The 
most important is the Confirmatio Cartarum of Edward I, 
in 1297. Though in form a charter, it was really a statute, 
passed by a Parliament representing nobles, clergy, and com- 
mons, and ratified by the king. By Article VI Edward I recog- 
nized the principle that no new or extraordinary taxes should 
be levied without the consent of Parliament. This article was 
often referred to in later times, especially by the parHamentary 
leaders who resisted the encroachments of the Stuarts. 

Confirmation ofsTHe Charters, 1297 

I. Edward, by the grace of God, king of England, lord of Ireland, 
and duke of Aquitaine, to all those that these present letters shall 
hear or see, greeting. Know ye that we to the honor of God and of 
holy Church, and to the profit of all our realm, have granted for us 
and our heirs that the Great Charter of Liberties and the Charter 
of the Forest, which were made by common assent of aU the realm, 
in the time of King Henry our father, shall be kept in every point 
without breach,^ And we will that these same charters shall be sent 
under our seal to our justices, both to those of the forest and to the 
rest, and to all sheriffs of shires, and to all our other ofiicers, and to 
all our cities throughout the realm, together with our writs in the which 
it shall be contained, that they cause the aforesaid charters to be pub- 
lished and have it declared to the people that we have granted that 
they shall be observed in all points, and that our justices, sheriffs, 
mayors, and other officials, which under us have to administer the 
laws of our land, shall allow the said charters in pleas before them and 

^ William Stubbs, Select Charters and Other Illustrations of English Constitu- 
tional History, pp. 492-493. Ninth Edition by H. W. C. Davis, Oxford, 1913. 
Clarendon Press. 

2 Henry III had granted a Charter of Liberties, embodying many of the provi- 
sions of Magna Carta, and also a separate charter dealing with the forests. 

14 



Confirmation of the Charters 15 

in judgments in all their points; that is to wit, the Great Charter as 
the common law and the Charter of the Forest according to the Assize 
of the Forest, for the rehef of our people. 

II. And we will that if any judgment be given from henceforth, 
contrary to the points of the charters aforesaid, by the justices or by 
any other of our ministers that hold plea before them against the points 
of the charters, it shall be undone and holden for nought. 

III. And we will that the same charters shall be sent under our 
seal to cathedral churches throughout our realm, and there remain, 
and shall be read before the people twice in the year. 

IV. And that archbishops and bishops shall pronounce sen- 
tences of greater excommunication against all those that by word, 
deed, or counsel shall go against the aforesaid charters, or that in any 
point break or go against them. And that the said curses be twice 
a year denounced and published by the prelates aforesaid. And if 
the same prelates or any of them be remiss in the denunciation of the 
said sentences, the archbishops of Canterbury and York for the time 
being, as is fitting, shall reprove them and constrain them to make 
that denunciation in form aforesaid. 

V. And for so much as divers people of our realm are in fear that 
the aids and mises which they have given to us beforetime toward 
our wars and other businesses, of their own grant and good- will, how- 
soever they were made, might turn to a bondage to them and their 
heirs, because they might be at another time found in the rolls, and 
so likewise the prises taken throughout the realm by our ministers 
in our name; we have granted for us and our heirs that we shall never 
draw such aids, mises, nor prises into a custom for anything that has 
been done heretofore or that may be found by roU or in any other 
manner. 

VI. Moreover we have granted for us and our heirs, as well to 
archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, and other folk of holy Church, 
as also to earls, barons, and to all the community of the land, that 
for no business from henceforth will we take such manner of aids, 
mises, nor prises from our realm, but by the common assent of all 
the realm, and for the common profit thereof, saving the ancient 
aids and prises due and accustomed. 

VII. And for so much as the more part of the community of the 
realm find themselves sore grieved with the maletote on wools, that 
is to wit, a toll of forty shillings for every sack of wool, and have made 
petition to us to release the same; we, at their requests, have fully 



i6 Historical Source Book 

released it, and have granted that we shall never take this nor any 
other without their common assent and good- will; saving to us and 
our heirs the custom of wools, skins, and leather granted before by 
the community aforesaid. In witness of which things we have caused 
to be made these our letters patent. Given at Ghent the fifth day of 
November in the twenty-fifth year of our realm. 



3. MAYFLOWER COMPACT, 1620 ^ 

The patent for colonization which the Pilgrims obtained 
from the London Company held good only within the limits of 
Virginia. Finding themselves outside that territory, the Pil- 
grims had to provide for the organization of their colony in the 
absence of a patent. On November ii, 1620, while the May- 
flower was lying off Cape Cod, the adult men of the com- 
pany gathered in the cabin of the vessel and signed the brief 
document given below. The names of the forty-one signers 
are not mentioned by Governor Bradford, who wrote the history 
of the settlement of Plymouth. 

Mayflo^ver Compact, 1620 
In the Name of God, A men 
We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our 
dread sovereign lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great 
Britain, France, and Ireland, king, defender of the faith, etc., having 
undertaken, for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian 
faith and honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first 
colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do, by these presents, 
solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one of another, 
covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for 
our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends 
aforesaid; and, by virtue hereof, to enact, constitute, and frame such 
just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from 
time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the 
general good of the colony, unto which we promise all due submission 
and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed 
our names, at Cape Cod, the nth of November, in the year of the 
reign of our sovereign lord, King James of England, France, and 
Ireland the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno 
Domini, 1620. 

^ William Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation, pp. 89-90. Edited by 
Charles Deane. Boston, 1856 (Massachusetts Historical Collections, Fourth Series, 
vol, iii). 

17 



4. PETITION OF RIGHT, 1628 



1 



Charles I, almost immediately upon succeeding to the 
throne, began to quarrel with his subjects. He twice dissolved 
Parliament, levied forced loans, arbitrarily imprisoned those 
who refused to make such loans, and otherwise played the 
tyrant. When Charles's third Parliament met in 1628, it im- 
mediately began the consideration of these grievances. The 
king attempted to satisfy his opponents by a simple confirma- 
tion of the Great Charter, such as had often been issued, and 
often disregarded, by former monarchs. Parliament refused 
to be cajoled, however, and under the leadership of Sir Edward 
Coke passed the Petition of Right. The king ratified it, much 
against his will, in order to obtain a grant of money from the 
legislature. This statute, which has the form of a petition, was 
the first important restriction of the powers of the Crown since 
the accession of the Tudor dynasty. 

Petition of Right, 1628 

, . . To the King's most excellent Majesty 

I. Humbly show unto our sovereign lord, the king, the Lords 
Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons in Parliament assembled, 
that, whereas it is declared and enacted by a statute made in the time 
of the reign of King Edward I, commonly called Statutum de Tallagio 
non Concedendo,'^ that no tallage or aid shall be laid or levied by the 
king or his heirs in this realm, without the good- will and assent of 
the archbishops, bishops, earls, barons, knights, burgesses, and other 
the freemen of the commonalty of this realm; and by authority of 
Qthe] Parliament held in the five-and-twehtieth year of the reign of 
King Edward III,^ it is declared and enacted that from thenceforth no 

* Statutes of the Realm, v, 24-25 (3 Charles I, c. i). 

2 This supposed statute is not found, however, in any authoritative record. 
It was probably a preliminary draft of the baronial demands granted in the Confirma- 
tion of the Charters by Edward I in 1297. 

3 This statute, also, does not appear upon the statute books. 

18 



Petition of Right 19 

person should be compelled to make any loans to the king against his 
will, because such loans were against reason and the franchise of the 
land; and by other laws of this realm it is provided that none should 
be charged by any charge or imposition called a benevolence, nor 
by such like charge; by which statutes before mentioned, and 
other the good laws and statutes of this realm, your subjects have 
inherited this freedom, that they should not be compelled to con- 
tribute to any tax, tallage, aid, or other like charge, not set by 
common consent in parliament. 

II. Yet nevertheless of late divers commissions directed to sundry 
commissions in several counties, with instructions, have issued, by 
means whereof your people have been in divers places assembled 
and required to lend certain sums of money unto your Majesty, and 
many of them upon their refusal so to do have had an oath of adminis- 
tered to them, not warrantable by the laws or statutes of this realm, 
and have been constrained to become bound and make appearance 
and give utterance before your Privy Council and in other places, 
and others of them have been therefore imprisoned, confined, and 
sundry other ways molested and disquieted; and divers other charges 
have been laid and levied upon your people in several countries, by 
lord lieutenants, deputy lieutenants, commissioners for musters, 
justices of [the] peace, and others, by command or direction from 
your Majesty, or your Privy Council, against the laws and free cus- 
toms of the realm. 

III. And whereas also by the statute called " The Great Charter 
of the liberties of England " it is declared and enacted that no free- 
man may be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his freehold or 
hberties, or his free customs, or be outlawed or exiled, or in any 
manner destroyed, but by the lawful judgment of his peers or by 
the law of the land. 

IV. And in the eighth-and-twentieth year of the reign of King 
Edward III, it was declared and enacted by authority of Parlia- 
ment that no man, of what estate or condition that he be, should be 
put out of his land or tenements, nor taken, nor imprisoned, nor 
disherited, nor put to death, without being brought to answer by 
due process of law. 

V. Nevertheless, against the tenor of the said statutes, and other 
the good laws and statutes of your realm to that end provided, divers 
of your subjects have of late been imprisoned without any cause 
showed. And when for their deliverance they were brought before 



20 Historical Source Book 

your justices, by your Majesty's writs of habeas corpus, there to 
undergo and receive as the court should order, and their keepers 
commanded to certify the cause of their detainer, no cause was cer- 
tified, but that they were detained by your Majesty's special com- 
mand, signified by the lords of your Privy Council, and yet were re- 
turned back to several prisons, without being charged with anything 
to which they might make answer according to the law. 

VI. And whereas of late great companies of soldiers and mariners 
have been dispersed into divers counties of the realm, and the in- 
habitants, against their wills, have been compelled to receive them 
into their houses, and there to suffer them to sojourn against the 
laws and customs of this realm, and to the great grievance and vexa- 
tion of the people. 

VII. And whereas, also, by authority of Parliament in the five- 
and-twentieth year of King Edward III it is declared and enacted 
that no man shall be forejudged of hfe or limb against the form of 
the Great Charter and the law of the land, and by the said Great 
Charter and other the laws and statutes of this your realm no man 
ought to be adjudged to death but by the laws established in this 
your realm, either by the customs of the said realm or by acts of Par- 
liament. And whereas no offender of what kind soever is exempted 
from the proceedings to be used and punishments to be inflicted by 
the laws and statutes of this your realm: nevertheless of late time 
divers commissions under your Majesty's Great Seal have issued forth, 
by which certain persons have been assigned and appointed com- 
missioners with power and authority to proceed within the land, ac- 
cording to the justice of martial law, against such soldiers or mari- 
ners, or other dissolute persons joining with them, as should commit 
any miurder, robbery, felony, mutiny, or other outrage or misdemeanor 
whatsoever, and by such summary course and order as is agreeable 
to martial law, and as is used in armies in time of war, to proceed to 
the trial and condemnation of such offenders, and them to cause to 
be executed and put to death according to the law martial. 

VIII. By pretext whereof some of your Majesty's subjects have 
been by the said commissioners put to death, when and where, if by 
the laws and statutes of the realm they had deserved death, by the 
same laws and statutes also they might, and by no other ought to have 
been, judged and executed. 

IX. And also sundry grievous offenders, by color thereof claiming 
an exemption, have escaped the punishments due to them by the laws 



Petition of Right 21 

and statutes of this your realm, by reason that divers of your officers 
and ministers of justice have unjustly refused or forborne to proceed 
against such offenders, according to the same law and statutes, upon 
pretense that the said offenders were punishable only by martial law, 
and by authority of such commissions as aforesaid; which com- 
missions and all other of like nature are wholly and directly contrary 
to the said laws and statutes of this your realm. 

X. They do therefore humbly pray your most excellent Majesty 
that no man hereafter be compelled to make or yield any gift, loan, 
benevolence, tax, or such like charge, without common consent by 
act of Parliament. And that none be called to make answer, or to 
take such oath, or to give attendance, or be confined, or otherwise 
molested or disquieted concerning the same or for refusal thereof. 
And that no freeman, in any such manner as is before mentioned, be 
imprisoned or detained. And that your Majesty would be pleased 
to remove the said soldiers and mariners, and that your people may 
not be so burdened in time to come. And that the aforesaid commis- 
sions, for proceeding by martial law, may be revoked and annulled. 
And that hereafter no commissions of like nature may issue forth to 
any person or persons whatsoever, to be executed as aforesaid, lest 
by color of them any of your Majesty's subjects be destroyed or put 
to death, contrary to the laws and franchise of the land. 

XI. All which they most humbly pray of your most excellent 
Majesty as their rights and liberties, according to the laws and stat- 
utes of this realm; and that your Majesty would also vouchsafe to 
declare that the awards, doings, and proceedings, to the prejudice of 
your people in any of the premises, shall not be drawn hereafter into 
consequence or example; and that your Majesty would be also 
graciously pleased, for the further comfort and safety of your people, 
to declare your royal will and pleasure that in the things aforesaid all 
your officers and ministers shall serve you according to the laws and 
statutes of this realm, as they tender the honor of your Majesty and 
the prosperity of this kingdom. 



5. NEW ENGLAND CONFEDERATION, 1643 ^ 

The precarious position of the New England colonies, ex- 
posed to attack' by the Indians, the Dutch, and the French, 
together with the apprehension of possible danger from the 
mother country, then in the throes of civil war, brought about 
the loose and temporary confederation described below. It was 
established by commissioners of the several colonies, who met 
at Boston in May, 1643. As explained in the last article, the 
Plymouth representatives did not ratify the document until 
the following September. Neither the Rhode Island settle- 
ments nor those in Maine were ever included in the confeder- 
ation. Though dissolved in 1684, the confederation proved to 
be of great service to the colonies in their dealings with their 
common enemies, and it furnished a precedent for colonial union 
in the eighteenth century. 

New England Confederation, 1643 

Articles of Confederation betwixt the Plantations under the 
Government of the Massachusetts, the Plantations 
under the Government of Plymouth, the Plantations 
under the Government of Connecticut, and the Govern- 
ment of New Haven, with the Plantations in Combina- 
tion therewith 

Whereas, we all came into these parts of America, with one and 
the same end and aim, namely, to advance the kingdom of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, and to enjoy the liberties of the Gospel in purity with 
peace; and whereas in our settling (by a wise providence of God) 
we are further dispersed upon the seacoasts and rivers than was at 
first intended, so that we cannot (according to our desire) with con- 
venience communicate in one government and jurisdiction; and 
whereas we live encompassed with people of several nations and 
strange languages, which hereafter may prove injurious to us and our 

1 Records of the Colony or Jurisdiction of New Haven, 1653-1664, pp. 562-566. 
Edited by C. J. Hoadly. Hartford, 1858. 

22 



New England Confederation 23 

posterity. And, forasmuch as the natives have formerly committed 
sundry insolences and outrages upon several plantations of the Eng- 
lish and have of late combined against us. And, seeing by reason of 
the sad distractions in England,^ which they have heard of, and by 
which they know we are hindered both from that humble way of 
seeking advice and reaping those comfortable fruits of protection 
which, at other times, we might well expect; we therefore do con- 
ceive it our bounden duty, without delay, to enter into a present con- 
sociation amongst ourselves, for mutual help and strength in all our 
future concernments, that, as in nation and religion, so in other re- 
spects, we be and continue one, according to the tenor and true 
meaning of the ensuing articles. 

I. Wherefore, it is fully agreed and concluded by and between 
the parties or jurisdictions above named, and they do jointly and 
severally by these presents agree and conclude, that they all be, and 
henceforth be called by the name of the United Colonies of New 
England. 

II. The said United Colonies for themselves and their posterities 
do jointly and severally hereby enter into a firm and perpetual league 
of friendship and amity, for offense and defense, mutual advice and 
succor, upon all just occasions, both for preserving and propagating 
the truth and liberties of the Gospel, and for their own mutual safety 
and welfare. 

III. It is further agreed that the plantations which at present 
are, or hereafter shall be settled within the Hmits of the Massachu- 
setts, shall be forever under the government of the Massachusetts. 
And shall have peculiar jurisdiction amongst themselves, as an entire 
body, and that Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven shall each 
of them, in all respects, have the like peculiar jurisdiction and govern- 
ment within their Hmits. And in reference to the plantations which 
already are settled, or shall hereafter be erected and shall settle within 
any of their limits, respectively, provided that no other jurisdiction 
shall hereafter be taken in, as a distinct head or member of this con- 
federation, nor shall any other either plantation, or jurisdiction in 
present being, and not already in combination, or under the juris- 
diction of any of these confederates, be received by any of them, nor 
shall any two of these confederates join in one jurisdiction, without 
consent of the rest, which consent to be interpreted as in the sixth 
ensuing article is expressed. 

1 The Great Rebellion, which broke out in 1642 



24 Historical Source Book 

IV. It is also by these confederates agreed that the charge of all 
just wars, whether offensive or defensive, upon what part or member 
of this confederation soever they fall, shall both in men, provisions, 
and all other disbursements, be borne by all the parts of this confede- 
ration in different proportions, according to their different abilities, 
in manner following, namely, that the commissioners for each juris- 
diction, from time to time, as there shall be occasion, bring a true 
account and number of all the males in each plantation or anyway 
belonging to, or under their several jurisdictions, of what quality or 
condition soever they be, from sixteen years old to threescore, being 
inhabitants there. And that according to the different numbers, 
which from time to time shall be found in each jurisdiction, upon a 
true and just account, the service of men and all charges of the war 
be borne by the poll: each jurisdiction or plantation being left to their 
own just course and custom of rating themselves and people, according 
to their different estates, with due respect to their qualities and ex- 
emptions among themselves, though the confederation take no notice 
of any such privilege. And that, according to the different charge 
of each jurisdiction and plantation, the whole advantage of the war 
(if it please God so to bless their endeavors) whether it be in lands, 
goods, or persons, shall be proportionably divided among the said 
confederates. 

V. It is further agreed that if any of these jurisdictions, or any 
plantation under or in combination with them, be invaded by any 
enemy whomsoever, upon notice and request of any three magistrates 
of that jurisdiction so invaded, the rest of the confederates, without 
any further meeting or expostulation, shall forthwith send aid to the 
confederate in danger, but in different proportion, namely, the Massa- 
chusetts one hundred men sufficiently armed and provided for such 
a service and journey, and each of the rest five-and-forty men, so 
armed and provided, or any less number, if less be required, according 
to this proportion. But if such a confederate may be supplied by 
their next confederate, not exceeding the number hereby agreed, 
they may crave help there and seek no further for the present. The 
charge to be borne, as in this article is expressed. And at their re- 
turn to be victualed, and supplied with powder and shot (if there be 
need), for their journey, by that jurisdiction which employed or sent 
for them. But none of the jurisdictions to exceed these numbers, 
till by a meeting of the commissioners for this confederation a greater 
aid appear necessary. And this proportion to continue, till upon 



New England Confederation 25 

knowledge of the numbers in each jurisdiction, which shall be brought 
to the next meeting, some other proportion be ordered. But in any- 
such case of sending men for present aid, whether before or after such 
order or alteration, it is agreed that at the meeting of the commis- 
sioners for this confederation, the cause of such war or invasion be 
duly considered, and if it appear that the fault lay in the party so 
invaded, that then that jurisdiction or plantation make just satis- 
faction, both to the invaders, whom they have injured, and bear all 
the charges of the war themselves, without requiring any allowance 
from the rest of the confederates toward the same. 

And further, if any jurisdiction see any danger of an invasion ap- 
proaching, and there be time for a meeting, that in such case three 
magistrates of that jurisdiction may summon a meeting, at such 
convenient place as themselves shall think meet, to consider and 
provide against the threatened danger. Provided, when they are 
met, they may remove to what place they please, only, while any of 
these four confederates have but three magistrates in their jurisdic- 
tion, a request or summons, from any two of them, shall be accounted 
of equal force with the three mentioned in both the clauses of this 
article, till there be an increase of magistrates there. 

VI. It is also agreed that for the managing and concluding of all 
affairs proper to, and concerning the whole confederation, two com- 
missioners shall be chosen by, and out of the four jurisdictions, namely, 
two for the Massachusetts, two for Plymouth, two for Connecticut, 
and two for New Haven, being all in Church fellowship with us, 
which shall bring full power from their several general courts, respec- 
tively, to hear, examine, weigh, and determine all affairs of war or 
peace, leagues, aids, charges, and numbers of men for war, division 
of spoils, or whatsoever is gotten by conquest, receiving of more 
confederates or plantations into combination with any of these con- 
federates, and all things of Hke nature, which are the proper con- 
comitants or consequences of such a confederation for amity, offense, 
and defense, not intermeddling with the government of any of the 
jurisdictions, which by the third article is preserved entirely to them- 
selves. But if these eight commissioners, when they meet, shall not 
all agree, yet it is concluded that any six of the eight agreeing shall 
have power to settle and determine the business in question. But 
if six do not agree, that then such propositions, with their reasons, so 
far as they have been debated, be sent and referred to the four general 
courts, viz, the Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New 



26 Historical Source Book 

Haven. And if at all the said general courts the business so referred 
be concluded, then to be prosecuted by the confederates and all their 
members. It is further agreed that these eight commissioners shall 
meet once every year, besides extraordinary meetings, according to 
the fifth article, to consider, treat, and conclude of all affairs belonging 
to this confederation, which meeting shall ever be the first Thursday 
in September. And that the next meeting after the date of these 
presents, which shall be accounted the second meeting, shall be at 
Boston in the Massachusetts, the third at Hartford, the fourth at 
New Haven, the fifth at Plymouth, the sixth and seventh at Boston; 
and then Hartford, New Haven, and Plymouth, and so in course suc- 
cessively, if in the meantime some middle place be not found out and 
agreed on, which may be commodious for all the jurisdictions. 

VII. It is further agreed that at each meeting of these eight com- 
missioners, whether ordinary or extraordinary, they all or any six of 
them agreeing as before, may choose their president out of them- 
selves, whose office and work shall be to take care and direct for order, 
and a comely carrying on of all proceedings in the present meeting. 
But he shall be invested with no such power or respect, as by which 
he shall hinder the propounding or progress of any business, or any 
way cast the scales, otherwise than In the precedent article is agreed. 

VIII. It is also agreed that the commissioners for this confedera- 
tion hereafter at their meetings, whether ordinary or extraordinary, 
as they may have commission or opportunity, do endeavor to frame 
and establish agreements and orders in general cases of a civil nature, 
wherein all the plantations are interested, for preserving peace amongst 
themselves and preventing (as much as may be) all occasions of war 
or differences with others, as about the free and speedy passage of 
justice in each jurisdiction to all the confederates equally as to their 
own, receiving those that remove from one plantation to another 
without due certificates, how all the jurisdictions may carry it toward 
the Indians, that they neither grow insolent nor be injured without 
due satisfaction, lest war break in upon the confederates through 
such miscarriages. It is also agreed that if any servant run away 
from his master into any other of these confederated jurisdictions, 
that in such case, upon the certificate of one magistrate in the juris- 
diction, out of which the said servant fled, or upon other due proof, 
the said servant shall be delivered either to his master or any other 
that pursues and brings such certificate or proof. And that upon 
the escape of any prisoner whatsoever, or fugitive, for any criminal 



New England Confederation 27 

cause, whether breaking prison, or getting from the officer, or otherwise 
escaping, upon the certificate of two magistrates of the jurisdiction 
out of which the escape is made, that he was a prisoner or such an 
offender at the time of the escape, the magistrates, or some of them, 
of that jurisdiction where for the present the said prisoner or fugitive 
abides, shall forthwith grant such a warrant, as the case will bear, 
for the apprehending of any such person and the delivery of him into 
the hand of the officer or other person who pursues him. And if 
help be required for the safe returning of any such offender, it shall be 
granted unto him that craves the same, he paying the charges thereof. 

IX. And for that the justest wars may be of dangerous conse- 
quence, especially to the smaller plantations in these United Colonies, 
it is agreed that neither the Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, 
nor New Haven, nor any of the members of any of them, shall at any 
time hereafter begin, undertake, or engage themselves, or this con- 
federation, or any part thereof in any war whatsoever (sudden exi- 
gencies with the necessary consequences thereof excepted, which are 
also to be moderated, as much as the case will permit) without the 
consent and agreement of the forenamed eight commissioners, or at 
least six of them, as in the sixth article is provided. And that no 
charge be required of any of the confederates, in case of a defensive 
war, till the said commissioners have met and approved the justice 
of the war, and have agreed upon the sum of money to be levied; 
which sum is then to be paid by the several confederates, in propor- 
tion, according to the fourth article. 

X. That in extraordinary occasions, when meetings are sum- 
moned by three magistrates of any jurisdiction, or two as in the fifth 
article, if any of the commissioners come not, due warning being given 
or sent, it is agreed that four of the commissioners shall have power 
to direct a war which cannot be delayed, and to send for due propor- 
tions of men out of each jurisdiction, as well as six might do, if all 
met; but not less than six shall determine the justice of the war, or 
allow the demands or bills of charges, or cause any levies to be made 
for the same. 

XI. It is further agreed that if any of the confederates shall 
hereafter break any of these present articles, or be any other way 
injurious to any one of the other jurisdictions, such breach of agree- 
ment or injury shall be duly considered and ordered by the commis- 
sioners for the other jurisdictions, that both peace and this present 
confederation may be entirely preserved without violation. 



28 - Historical Source Book 

Lastly, this perpetual confederation, and the several articles and 
agreements thereof, being read and seriously considered, both by the 
General Court for the Massachusetts, and by the commissioners for 
Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven, were presently and fully 
allowed and confirmed by three of the forenamed confederates, namely, 
the Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven; in testimony 
whereof, the General Court of the Massachusetts by their secretary, 
and the commissioners for Connecticut and New Haven subscribed 
them the 19th day of the third month, commonly called May, Anno 
Domini, 1643. 

Only the commissioners from Plymouth, having brought no com- 
mission to conclude, desired respite to advise with their General 
Court, which was granted, and at the second meeting of the commis- 
sioners for the confederation, held at Boston in September following, 
the commissioners for the jurisdiction of Plymouth delivered in an 
order of their General Court, dated the 29th [day] of August, 1643, 
by which it appeared that these Articles of Confederation were read, 
approved, and confirmed by the said court and all their townships, 
and their commissioners authorized to ratify them by their subscrip- 
tions, which they accordingly did, the 7th day of September, 1643. 



6. INSTRUMENT OF GOVERNMENT, 1653 ^ 

This document was drawn up by some of Cromwell's army- 
officers, and with his sanction, to provide a constitutional frame- 
work for the Protectorate. Under it Cromwell served as Lord 
Protector for life, but his authority was to be limited by Par- 
liament and a Council of State, and his acts could be reviewed 
by the courts. The members of the first Parliament of the 
Protectorate, meeting in 1654, refused to accept the Instru- 
ment and insisted upon their right to prepare a constitution. 
In spite of this rebuff, Cromwell for some time tried to rule in 
accordance with the Instrument, until the growing difficulties 
of his position led him to adopt a more arbitrary policy. The 
document is notable as the only written constitution which 
Great Britain has ever had in actual operation. It is also of 
extreme interest as the first example of a constitution which 
attempts to mark off strictly the powers of the legislative and 
executive departments. In this respect the Instrument may 
be regarded as the forerunner of our own and all later consti- 
tutions. Articles I-VIII, XXII-XXIV, XXVII, XXXII, 
XXXIII, XXXV, XXXVI, and XLI-XLII contain the most 
essential provisions. 

iNSTRUilENT OF GOVERNMENT, 1 6 53 

The Government of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, 
and Ireland, and the Dominions thereunto belonging 

I. That the supreme legislative authority of the Commonwealth 
of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the dominions thereunto be- 
longing, shall be and reside in one person, and the people assembled 
in Parliament : the style of which person shall be the Lord Protector 
of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland. 

II. That the exercise of the chief magistracy and the adminis- 
tration of the government over the said countries and dominions, 

1 CohhetVs Parliamentary History of England , vol. iii, pp. 1417-1426. London, 
1806-1820. 

29 



30 Historical Source Book 

and the people thereof, shall be in the Lord Protector, assisted with 
a council, the number whereof shall not exceed twenty-one nor be 
less than thirteen. 

III. That all writs, processes, commissions, patents, grants, and 
other things, which now run in the name and style of the "Keepers of 
the Liberty of England by Authority of Parliament," shall run in the 
name and style of the Lord Protector, from whom, for the future, shall 
be derived all magistracy and honors in these three nations; and 
have the power of pardons (except in case of murders and treason) 
and benefit of all forfeitures for the public use; and shall govern the 
said countries and dominions in all things by the advice of the council, 
and according to these presents and the laws. 

IV. That the Lord Protector, the Parliament sitting, shall dis- 
pose and order the militia and forces, both by sea and land, for the 
peace and good of the three nations, by consent of Parliament; and 
that the Lord Protector, with the advice and consent of the major 
part of the council, shall dispose and order the militia for the ends 
aforesaid in the intervals of Parliament. 

V. That the Lord Protector, by the advice aforesaid, shall direct 
in all things concerning the keeping and holding of a good corre- 
spondency with foreign kings, princes, and states; and also, with the 
consent of the major part of the council, have the power of war and 
peace, 

VL That the laws shall not be altered, suspended, abrogated, or 
repealed, nor any new law made, nor any tax, charge, or imposition 
laid upon the people, but by common consent in Parliament, save 
only as is expressed in the thirtieth article. 

VII. That there shall be a Parliament summoned to meet at 
Westminster upon the third day of September, 1654, and that succes- 
sively a Parliament shall be summoned once in every third year, to 
be accounted from the dissolution of the present Parliament. 

VIII. That neither the Parliament to be next srmimoned, nor 
any successive Parliaments, shall, during the time of five months, 
to be accounted from the day of their first meeting, be adjourned, 
prorogued, or dissolved, without their own consent. 

IX. That as well the next as all other successive Parliaments 
shall be summoned and elected in manner hereafter expressed; that 
is to say, the persons to be chosen within England, Wales, the isles 
of Jersey [and] Guernsey, and the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, to 
sit and serve in Parliament, shall be, and not exceed, the number of 



Instrument of Government 31 

four hundred. The persons to be chosen within Scotland, to sit and 
serve in Parliament, shall be, and not exceed, the number of thirty; 
and the persons to be chosen to sit in Parliament for Ireland shall 
be, and not exceed, the number of thirty. 

X. That the persons to be elected to sit in Parliament from time 
to time, for the several counties of England, Wales, the isles of Jersey 
and Guernsey, and the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and all places 
within the same respectively, shall be according to the proportions 
and numbers hereafter expressed; that is to say.^ . . . 

The distribution of the persons to be chosen for Scotland and 
Ireland, and the several counties, cities, and places therein, shall be 
according to such proportions and number as shall be agreed upon 
and declared by the Lord Protector and the major part of the council, 
before the sending forth writs of summons for the next Parliament. 

XL That the summons to Parliament shall be by writ under the 
Great Seal of England, directed to the sheriffs of the several and 
respective counties, with such alteration as may suit with the present 
government, to be made by the Lord Protector and his council, which 
the Chancellor, Keeper, or Commissioners of the Great Seal shall 
seal, issue, and send abroad by warrant from the Lord Protector. 
If the Lord Protector shall not give warrant for issuing of writs of 
summons for the next Parliament, before the first of June, 1654, or 
for the triennial Parliaments, before the first day of August in every 
third year, to be accounted as aforesaid; that then the Chancellor, 
Keeper, or Commissioners of the Great Seal for the time being, shall, 
without any warrant or direction, within seven days after the said 
first day of June, 1654, seal, issue, and send abroad writs of summons, 
(changing therein what is to be changed as aforesaid) to the several 
and respective sheriffs of England, Scotland, and Ireland, for sum- 
moning the Parliament to meet at Westminster, the third day of 
September next; and shall hkewise, within seven days after the said 
first day of August, in every third year, to be accounted from the dis- 
solution of the precedent Parliament, seal, issue, and send forth 
abroad several writs of summons (changing therein what is to be 
changed) as aforesaid, for summoning the Parliament to meet at 
Westminster the sixth of November in that third year. That the 
said several and respective sheriffs shall, within ten days after the re- 
ceipt of such writ as aforesaid, cause the same to be proclaimed and 
published in every market town within his county upon the market 
* Here follows the apportionment. 



32 Historical Source Book 

days thereof, between twelve and three of the clock; and shall then 
also pubHsh and declare the certain day of the week and month for 
choosing members to serve in Parliament for the body of the said 
county, according to the tenor of the said writ, which shall be upon 
Wednesday five weeks after the date of the writ; and shall hkewise 
declare the place where the election shall be made: for which purpose 
he shall appoint the most convenient place of the whole county to 
meet in; and shall send precepts for elections to be made in all and 
every city, town, borough, or place within his county where elections 
are to be made by virtue of these presents, to the mayor, sheriff, or 
other head officer of such city, town, borough, or place, within three 
days after the receipt of such writ and writs; which the said mayors, 
sheriffs, and officers respectively are to make pubHcation of, and of 
the certain day for such elections to be made in the said city, town, 
or place aforesaid, and to cause elections to be made accordingly. 

XII. That at the day and place of elections the sheriff of each 
county, and the said mayors, sheriffs, bailiffs, and other head officers, 
within their cities, towns, boroughs, and places respectively, shall 
take view of the said elections, and shall make return into the chan- 
cery, within twenty days after the said elections, of the persons elected 
by the greater number of electors, under their hands and seals, be- 
tween him on the one part and the electors on the other part; wherein 
shall be contained, that the persons elected shall not have power to 
alter the government as it is hereby settled in one single person and a 
Parliament. 

XIII. That the sheriff, who shall wittingly and willingly make 
any false return, or neglect his duty, shall incur the penalty of two 
thousand marks of lawful English money; the one moiety to the 
Lord Protector, and the other moiety to such person as will sue for 
the same. 

XIV. That all and every person and persons, who have aided, 
advised, assisted, or abetted in any war against the Parliament, since 
the first day of January, 1641 (unless they have been since in the serv- 
ice of the Parliament and given signal testimony of their good affec- 
tion thereunto), shall be disabled and incapable to be elected, or to 
give any vote in the election of any members to serve in the next 
Parliament, or in the three succeeding triennial Parliaments. 

XV. That all such, who have advised, assisted, or abetted the 
rebellion of Ireland, shall be disabled and incapable forever to be 
elected, or give any vote in the election of any member to serve in 



Instrument of Government 33 

Parliament; as also all such who do or shall profess the Roman 
Catholic religion. 

XVI. That all votes and elections given or made contrary, or not 
according to these qualifications, shall be null and void; and if any 
person, who is hereby made incapable, shall give his vote for election 
of members to serve in Parliament, such person shall lose and forfeit 
one full year's value of his real estate, and one full third part of his 
personal estate; one moiety thereof to the Lord Protector, and the 
other moiety to him or them who shall sue for the same. 

XVII. That the persons who shall be elected to serve in Parlia- 
ment shall be such (and no other than such) as are persons of known 
integrity, fearing God, and of good conversation, and being of the 
age of twenty-one years. 

XVIII. That all and every person and persons seised or pos- 
sessed, to his own use, of any estate, real or personal, to the value of 
two hundred pounds, and not within the aforesaid exceptions, shall 
be capable to elect members to serve in Parliament for counties. 

XIX. That the Chancellor, Keeper, or Commissioners of the 
Great Seal shall be sworn, before they enter into their offices, truly 
and faithfully to issue forth and send abroad writs of summons to 
Parliament, at the times and in the manner before expressed: and in 
case of neglect or failure to issue and send abroad writs accordingly, 
he or they shall for every such offense be guilty of high treason and 
suffer the pains and penalties thereof. 

XX. That in case writs be not issued out, as is before expressed, 
but that there be a neglect therein, fifteen days after the time wherein 
the same ought to be issued out by the Chancellor, Keeper, or Com- 
missioners of the Great Seal; that then the Parliament shall, as often 
as such failure shall happen, assemble and be held at Westminster, 
in the usual place, at the times prefixed, in manner and by the means 
hereafter expressed; that is to say, that the sheriffs of the several and 
respective counties, sheriffdoms, cities, boroughs, and places afore- 
said within England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, the Chancellor, 
masters, and scholars of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, 
and the mayor and bailiffs of the borough of Berwick-upon-Tweed, 
and other places aforesaid respectively, shall at the several courts 
and places to be appointed as aforesaid, within thirty days after the 
said fifteen days, cause such members to be chosen for their said 
several and respective counties, sheriffdoms, universities, cities, bor- 
oughs, and places aforesaid, by such persons, and in such manner, as 



34 Historical Source Book 



1 



if several and respective writs of summons to Parliament under the 
Great Seal had issued and been awarded according to the tenor afore- 
said; that if the sheriff, or other persons authorized, shall neglect his 
or their duty herein, that all and every such sheriff and person au- 
thorized as aforesaid, so neglecting his or their duty, shall, for every 
such offense, be guilty of high treason, and shall suffer the pains and 
penalties thereof. 

XXI. That the clerk, called the Clerk of the Commonwealth in 
Chancery for the time being, and all others, who shall afterwards 
execute that office, to whom the returns shall be made, shall for the 
next Parliament, and the two succeeding triennial Parliaments, the 
next day after such return, certify the names of the several persons 
so returned, and of the places for which he and they were chosen re- 
spectively, unto the council; who shall peruse the said returns and 
examine whether the persons so elected and returned be such as is 
agreeable to the qualifications, and not disabled to be elected: and 
that every person and persons being so duly elected and being ap- 
proved of by the major part of the council to be persons not disabled, 
but qualified as aforesaid, shall be esteemed a member of Parliament 
and be admitted to sit in Parliament, and not otherwise. 

XXII. That the persons so chosen and assembled in manner 
aforesaid, or any sixty of them, shall be, and be deemed the Parlia- 
ment of England, Scotland, and Ireland; and the supreme legislative 
power to be and reside in the Lord Protector and such Parliament, 
in manner herein expressed. 

XXIII. That the Lord Protector, with the advice of the major 
part of the council, shall at any other time than is before expressed, 
when the necessities of the state shall require it, summon Parliaments 
in manner before expressed, which shall not be adjourned, prorogued, 
or dissolved without their consent, during the first three months of 
their sitting. And in case of future war with any foreign state, a 
Parliament shall be forthwith summoned for their advice concerning 
the same. 

XXIV. That all bills agreed unto by the Parliament shall be 
presented to the Lord Protector for his consent ; and in case he shall 
not give his consent thereto within twenty days after they shall be 
presented to him, or give satisfaction to the ParKament within the 
time limited, that then, upon declaration of the Parliament that the 
Lord Protector has not consented nor given satisfaction, such bills 
shall pass into and become laws, although he shall not give his con- 



Instrument of Government 35 

sent thereunto; provided such bills contain nothing in them con- 
trary to the matters contained in these presents. 

XXV. That Henry Lawrence, Esq. ... ^ or any seven of them, 
shall be a council for the purposes expressed in this writing; and 
upon the death or other removal of any of them the Parliament shall 
nominate six persons of ability, integrity, and fearing God, for every 
one that is dead or removed; out of which the major part of the coun- 
cil shall elect two and present them to the Lord Protector, of which 
he shall elect one; and in case the Parliament shall not nominate 
within twenty days after notice given unto them thereof, the major 
part of the council shall nominate three as aforesaid to the Lord 
Protector, who out of them shall supply the vacancy; and until this 
choice be made, the remaining part of the council shall execute as 
fully in all things as if their number were full. And in case of cor- 
ruption or other miscarriage in any of the council in their trust, the 
Parliament shall appoint seven of their number and the council six, 
who, together with the Lord Chancellor, Lord Keeper, or Commis- 
sioners of the Great Seal for the time being, shall have power to hear 
and determine such corruption and miscarriage, and to award and 
inflict punishment, as the nature of the offense shall deserve, which 
punishment shall not be pardoned or remitted by the Lord Protector; 
and, in the interval of Parliaments, the major part of the council, 
with the consent of the Lord Protector, may, for corruption or other 
miscarriage as aforesaid, suspend any of their number from the exer- 
cise of their trust, if they shall find it just, until the matter shall be 
heard and examined as aforesaid. 

XXVI. That the Lord Protector and the major part of the council 
aforesaid may, at any time before the meeting of the next Parliament, 
add to the council such persons as they shall think fit, provided the 
number of the council be not made thereby to exceed twenty-one, 
and the quorum to be proportioned accordingly by the Lord Protector 
and the major part of the council. 

XXVII. That a constant yearly revenue shall be raised, settled, 
and established for maintaining of ten thousand horse and dragoons 
and twenty thousand foot in England, Scotland, and Ireland, for 
the defense and security thereof, and also for a convenient number 
of ships for guarding of the seas; besides two hundred thousand 
pounds per annum for defraying the other necessary charges of ad- 
ministration of justice and other expenses of the government, which 

1 The names of fifteen members follow. 



36 Historical Source Book 

revenue shall be raised by the customs, and such other ways and means 
as shall be agreed upon by the Lord Protector and the council, and 
shall not be taken away or diminished, nor the way agreed upon for 
raising the same altered, but by the consent of the Lord Protector 
and the Parliament. 

XXVIII. That the said yearly revenue shall be paid into the 
public treasury, and shall be issued out for the uses aforesaid. 

XXIX. That in case there shall not be cause hereafter to keep 
up so great a defense both at land or sea, but that there be an abate- 
ment made thereof, the money which will be saved thereby shall re- 
main in bank for the public service and not be employed to any other 
use but by consent of Parliament, or, in the intervals of Parliament, 
by the Lord Protector and major part of the council. 

XXX. That the raising of money for defraying the charge of the 
present extraordinary forces, both at sea and land, in respect of the 
present wars, shall be by consent of Parliament, and not otherwdse: 
save only that the Lord Protector, with the consent of the major part 
of the council, for preventing the disorders and dangers which might 
otherwise fall out both by sea and land, shall have power, until the 
meeting of the first Parliament, to raise money for the purposes afore- 
said ; and also to make laws and ordinances for the peace and welfare of 
these nations where it shall be necessary, which shall be binding and 
in force until order shall be taken in Parliament concerning the same. 

XXXI. That the lands, tenements, rents, royalties, jurisdictions, 
and hereditaments which remain yet unsold or undisposed of by 
act or ordinance of Parliament, belonging to the Commonwealth 
(except the forests and chases and the honors and manors belonging 
to the same; the lands of the rebels in Ireland, lying in the four coun- 
ties of Dublin, Cork, Kildare, and Carlow; the lands forfeited by the 
people of Scotland in the late wars, and also the lands of Papists and 
delinquents in England who have not yet compounded) , shall be vested 
in the Lord Protector to hold, to him and his successors, Lords Pro- 
tectors of these nations, and shall not be alienated but by consent 
in Parhament. And all debts, fines, issues, amercements, penalties, 
and profits, certain and casual, due to the "Keepers of the Liberty of 
England by Authority of Parliament," shall be due to the Lord Pro- 
tector, and be payable into his public receipt, and shall be recovered 
and prosecuted in his name. 

XXXII. That the office of Lord Protector over these nations shall 
be elective and not hereditary; and upon the death of the Lord Pro- 



Instrument of Government 37 

tector another fit person shall be forthwith elected to succeed him 
in the government; which election shall be by the council, who, im- 
mediately upon the death of the Lord Protector, shall assemble in 
the chamber where they usually sit in council; and, having given 
notice to all their members of the cause of their assembhng, shall, 
being thirteen at least present, proceed to the election; and, before 
they depart the said chamber, shall elect a fit person to succeed in 
the government, and forthwith cause proclamation thereof to be made 
in all the three nations as shall be requisite; and the person that they, 
or the major part of them, shall elect as aforesaid, shall be, and shall 
be taken to be, Lord Protector over these nations of England, Scot- 
land, and Ireland, and the dominions thereto belonging. Provided 
that none of the children of the late king, nor any of his line or family, 
be elected to be Lord Protector or other chief magistrate over these 
nations, or any the dominions thereto belonging. And until the 
aforesaid election be past, the council shall take care of the govern- 
ment and administer in all things as fully as the Lord Protector, or 
the Lord Protector and council are enabled to do. 

XXXIII. That Oliver Cromwell, Captain-General of the forces 
of England, Scotland, and Ireland, shall be, and is hereby declared 
to be, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, 
and Ireland, and the dominions thereto belonging, for his life. 

XXXIV. That the Chancellor, Keeper or Commissioners of the 
Great Seal, the Treasurer, Admiral, Chief Governors of Ireland and 
Scotland, and the Chief Justices of both the Benches, shall be chosen 
by the approbation of Parliament ; and, in the intervals of Parhament, 
by the approbation of the major part of the council, to be afterwards 
approved by the Parliament. 

XXXV. That the Christian rehgion, as contained in the Scrip- 
tures, be held forth and recommended as the public profession of 
these nations; and that, as soon as may be, a provision, less subject 
to scruple and contention and more certain than the present, be made 
for the encouragement and maintenance of able and painful teachers, 
for instructing the people, and for discovery and confutation of error, 
hereby, and whatever is contrary to sound doctrine; and until 
such provision be made, the present maintenance shall not be taken 
away or impeached. 

XXXVI. That to the pubhc profession held forth none shall be 
compelled by penalties or otherwise; but that endeavors be used to 
win them by sound doctrine and the example of a good conversation. 



38 Historical Source Book 

XXXVII. That such as profess faith in God by Jesus Christ 
(though differing in judgment from the doctrine, worship, or dis- 
cipHne pubHcly held forth) shall not be restrained from, but shall be 
protected in, the profession of the faith and exercise of their religion, 
so as they abuse not this liberty to the civil injury of others and to 
the actual disturbance of the pubUc peace on their parts: provided 
this liberty be not extended to popery or prelacy, nor to such as, under 
the profession of Christ, hold forth and practice hcentiousness. 

XXXVIII. That all laws, statutes, and ordinances, and clauses 
in any law statue or ordinance to the contrary of the aforesaid liberty, 
shall be esteemed as null and void. 

XXXIX. That the acts and ordinances of Parliament made for 
the sale or other disposition of the lands, rents, and hereditaments 
of the late king, queen, and prince, of archbishops and bishops, etc., 
deans and chapters, the lands of dehnquents and forest lands, or any 
of them, or of any other lands, tenements, rents, and hereditaments 
belonging to the Commonwealth, shall nowise be impeached or made 
invaUd, but shall remain good and firm; and that the securities given 
by act and ordinance of ParUament for any sum or sums of money, 
by any of the said lands, the excise, or any other pubhc revenue; and 
also the securities given by the public faith of the nation, and the 
engagement of the public faith for satisfaction of debts and damages, 
shall remain firm and good, and not be made void and invahd upon 
any pretense whatsoever. 

XL. That the articles given to or made with the enemy, and 
afterwards confirmed by Parliament, shall be performed and made 
good to the persons concerned therein; and that such appeals as were 
depending in the last Parliament for relief concerning bills of sale of 
dehnquents' estates, may be heard and determined the next ParUa- 
ment, anything in this writing or otherwise to the contrary not- 
withstanding. 

XLI. That every successive Lord Protector over these nations 
shall take and subscribe a solemn oath, in the presence of the council, 
and such others as they shall call to them, that he will seek the peace, 
quiet, and welfare of these nations, cause law and justice to be equally 
administered; and that he will not violate or infringe the matters 
and things contained in this writing, and in all other things will, to 
his power and to the best of his understanding, govern these nations 
according to the laws, statutes, and customs thereof. 

XLII. That each person of the council shall, before they enter 



Instrument of Government 39 

upon their trust, take and subscribe an oath that they will be true 
and faithful in their trust, according to the best of their knowledge; 
and that in the election of every successive Lord Protector they shall 
proceed therein impartially, and do nothing therein for any promise, 
fear, favor, or reward. 



7. HABEAS CORPUS ACT, 1679 ^ 

The right to the writ of habeas corpus had long been recog- 
nized by the Common Law, but prior to 1679 it was, under 
various pleas and excuses, often wholly nullified. The cele- 
brated statute passed during the reign of Charles II made the 
remedies against arbitrary imprisonment short, certain, and 
easily obtainable. The chief defect in the Act, in failing to fix 
a limit on the amount of bail to be demanded, was removed a 
few years later by the Bill of Rights, which declared that "ex- 
cessive bail ought not to be required." The Act in its original 
form applied only to the detention of persons charged with 
crime, but by a statute passed in 181 2 it was made applicable 
to other cases of unjust imprisonment. As thus modified, the 
Habeas Corpus Act has become the basis of all legislation on 
the subject throughout the English-speaking world. The stu- 
dent should at least read articles I, II, V, and X. 

Habeas Corpus Act, 1679 

An Act for the better securing the Liberty of the Subject, 
and for Prevention of Imprisonments beyond the Seas 

1. Whereas great delays have been used by sheriffs, gaolers, and 
other officers, to whose custody any of the king's subjects have been 
committed for criminal or supposed criminal matters, in making re- 
turns of writs of habeas corpus to them directed, by standing out 
an alias and pluries habeas corpus,"^ and sometimes more, and by 
other shifts to avoid their yielding obedience to such writs, contrary 
to their duty and the known laws of the land, whereby many of the 
king's subjects have been and hereafter may be long detained in 
prison, in such cases where by law they are bailable, to their great 
charges and vexation: 

1 Statuks of the Realm, v, 035-938 (31 Charles 11, c. 2). 

* An alias writ is a second writ issued after a previous writ has been issued with- 
out effect. A pleuries writ is one issued after the first writ and an aiias writ have 
failed of effect. 

40 



Habeas Corpus Act 41 

II. For the prevention whereof, and the more speedy relief of 
all persons imprisoned for any such criminal or supposed criminal 
matters; be it enacted by the king's most excellent Majesty, by and 
with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and 
Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the author- 
ity thereof, that whensoever any person or persons shall bring any 
habeas corpus directed unto any sheriff or sheriffs, gaoler, minister, 
or other person whatsoever, for any person in his or their custody, 
and the said writ shall be served upon the said officer, or left at the 
gaol or prison with any of the under-ofilicers, under-keepers, or deputy 
of the said officers or keepers, that the said officer or officers, his or 
their under-officers, under-keepers or deputies, shall, within three 
days after the service thereof as aforesaid (unless the commitment 
aforesaid were for treason or felony, plainly or specially expressed 
in the warrant of commitment), upon payment or tender of the 
charges of bringing the said prisoner, to be ascertained by the judge 
or court that awarded the same and endorsed upon the said writ, 
not exceeding twelve pence per mile, and upon security given by his 
own bond to pay the charges of carrying back the prisoner, if he shall 
be remanded by the court or judge to which he shall be brought accord- 
ing to the true intent of this present act, and that he will not make 
any escape by the way, make return of such writ ; and bring or cause 
to be brought the body of the party so committed or restrained unto 
or before the Lord Chancellor, or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of 
England for the time being, or the judges or barons of the said court 
from whence the said writ shall issue, or unto and before such other 
person or persons before whom the said writ is made returnable, ac- 
cording to the command thereof; and shall then Hkewise certify the 
true causes of his detainer or imprisonment, unless the commitment 
of the said party be in any place beyond the distance of twenty miles 
from the place or places where such court or person is or shall be 
residing; and if beyond the distance of twenty miles, and not above 
one hundred miles, then within the space of ten days, and if beyond 
the distance of one hundred miles, then within the space of twenty 
days, after such delivery aforesaid, and not longer. 

III. And to the intent that no sheriff, gaoler, or other officer may 
pretend ignorance of the import of any such writ ; be it enacted by 
the authority aforesaid that all such writs shall be marked in this 
manner, per statutum tricesimo primo Caroli secundi regis,^ and shall 

^ "According to the statute of the thirty-first year of King Charles II." 



42 Historical Source Book 

be signed by the person that awards the same; and if any person or 
persons shall be or stand committed or detained as aforesaid, for any 
crime, unless for treason or felony plainly expressed in the warrant of 
commitment, in the vacation time, and out of term, it shall and may 
be lawful to and for the person or persons so committed or detained 
(other than persons convict or in execution by legal process) , or any 
one on his or their behalf, to appeal or complain to the Lord Chancel- 
lor or Lord Keeper, or any one of his Majesty's justices, either of the 
one bench or of the other, or the barons of the exchequer of the degree 
of the coif; and the said Lord Chancellor, Lord Keeper, justices or 
barons or any of them, upon view of the copy or copies of the warrant 
or warrants of commitment and detainer, or otherwise upon oath 
made that such copy or copies were denied to be given by such per- 
son or persons in whose custody the prisoner or prisoners is or are 
detained, are hereby authorized and required, upon request made in 
writing by such person or persons or any on his, her, or their behalf, 
attested and subscribed by two witnesses who were present at the 
delivery of the same, to award and grant a habeas corpus under the 
seal of such court whereof he shall then be one of the judges, to be 
directed to the officer or officers in whose custody the party so com- 
mitted or detained shall be, returnable immediate before the said 
Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper, or such justice, baron, or any other 
justice or baron of the degree of the coif of any of the said courts; 
and upon service thereof as aforesaid, the ofificer or officers, his or 
their under-officer or under-officers, under-keeper or under-keepers, or 
their deputy, in whose custody the party is so committed or detained, 
shall, within the times respectively before limited, bring such prisoner 
or prisoners before the said Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper, or such 
justices, barons, or one of them, before whom the said writ is made 
returnable, and in case of his absence before any of them, with the 
return of such writ and the true causes of the commitment and de- 
tainer; and thereupon within two days after the party shall be brought 
before them, the said Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper, or such justice 
or baron before whom the prisoner shall be brought as aforesaid, shall 
discharge the said prisoner from his imprisonment, taking his or their 
recognizance, with one or more surety or sureties, in any sum accord- 
ing to their discretions, having regard to the quality of the prisoner 
and nature of the offense, for his or their appearance in the Court of 
King's Bench the term following, or at the next assizes, sessions, or 
general gaol-delivery of and for such county, city, or place where the 



Habeas Corpus Act 43 

commitment was, or where the offense was committed, or in such 
other court where the said offense is properly cognizable, as the case 
shall require, and then shall certify the said writ with the return 
thereof, and the said recognizance or recognizances into the said court 
where such appearance is to be made; unless it shall appear unto the 
said Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper, or justice or justices, or baron 
or barons, that the party so committed is detained upon a legal 
process, order, or warrant, out of some court that has jurisdiction 
of criminal matters, or by some warrant signed and sealed with the 
hand and seal of any of the said justices or barons, or some justice or 
justices of the peace, for such matters or offenses for the which by 
the law the prisoner is not bailable. 

IV. Provided always, and be it enacted that if any person shall 
have wilfully neglected by the space of two whole terms after his 
imprisonment, to pray a habeas corpus for his enlargement, such 
person wilfully so neglecting shall not have any habeas corpus to 
be granted in vacation time, in pursuance of this act. 

V. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid that if 
any ofhcer or officers, his or their under-offfcer or under-offfcers, 
under-keeper or under-keepers, or deputy, shall neglect or refuse to 
make the returns aforesaid, or to bring the body or bodies of the 
prisoner or prisoners according to the command of the said writ, 
within the respective times aforesaid, or upon demand made by the 
prisoner or person in his behalf, shall refuse to deliver, or within the 
space of six hours after demand shall not deliver, to the person so de- 
manding, a true copy of the warrant or warrants of commitment and 
detainer of such prisoner, which he and they are hereby required to 
deliver accordingly; all and every the head gaolers and keepers of 
such prisons, and such other person in whose custody the prisoner 
shall be detained, shall for the first offense forfeit to the prisoner or 
party grieved the sum of one hundred pounds; and for the second 
offense the sum of two hundred pounds, and shall and is hereby made 
incapable to hold or execute his said office; the said penalties to be 
recovered by the prisoner or party grieved, his executors or adminis- 
trators, against such offender, his executors or administrators, by 
any action of debt, suit, bill, plaint, or information, in any of the 
king's courts at Westminster, wherein no essoin, protection, privi- 
lege, injunction, wager of law, or stay of prosecution by non vult 
uUerius prosequi,^ or otherwise, shall be admitted or allowed, or any 

1 "It is not desired to pursue further." 



44 Historical Source Book 

more than one imparlance;^ and any recovery or judgment at the suit 
of any party grieved shall be a sujfficient conviction for the first offense; 
and any after recovery or judgment, at the suit of a party grieved for 
any offense after the first judgment, shall be a sufficient conviction 
to bring the officers or person within the said penalty for the second 
offense. 

f >ii VI. And for the prevention of unjust vexation by reiterated 
commitments for the same offense; be it enacted by the authority 
aforesaid that no person or persons, which shall be delivered or set at 
large upon any habeas corpus, shall at any time hereafter be again 
imprisoned or committed for the same offense by any person or per- 
sons whatsoever, other than by the legal order and process of such 
court wherein he or they shall be bound by recognizance to appear, 
or other court having jurisdiction of the cause; and if any other per- 
son or persons shall knowingly, contrary to this act, recommit or 
imprison, or knowingly procure or cause to be recommitted or im- 
prisoned, for the same offense or pretended offense, any person or per- 
sons delivered or set at large as aforesaid, or be knowingly aiding or 
assisting therein, then he or they shall forfeit to the prisoner or party 
grieved the sum of five hundred pounds; any colorable pretense or 
variation in the warrant or warrants of commitment notwithstanding, 
to be recovered as aforesaid. 

VII. Provided always, and be it further enacted that if any per- 
son or persons shall be committed for high treason or felony, plainly 
and specially expressed in the warrant of commitment, upon his 
prayer or petition in open court the first week of the term, or first 
day of the sessions of Oyer and Terminer ^ or general gaol-delivery, 
to be brought to his trial, shall not be indicted some time in the 
next term, sessions of Oyer and Terminer, or general gaol-delivery, 
after such commitment; it shall and may be lawful to and for the 
judges of the Court of King's Bench and justices of Oyer and Terminer, 
or general gaol-delivery, and they are hereby required, upon motion 
to them made in open court the last day of the term, sessions, or gaol- 
delivery, either by the prisoner or any one in his behalf, to set at 
liberty the prisoner upon bail, unless it appears to the judges and 
justices upon oath made that the witnesses for the king could not 
be produced the same term, sessions, or general gaol-delivery; and 

^ An imparlance is an extension of time for pleading; a continuance. 
2 French for "To hear and determine." In English law a special commission 
to judges or others to inquire into a treason or felony. 



I 



Habeas Corpus Act 45 

if any person or persons committed as aforesaid, upon his prayer or 
petition in open court the first week of the term, or first day of the 
sessions of Oyer and Terminer, or general gaol-delivery, to be brought 
to his trial, shall not be indicted and tried the second term, sessions 
of Oyer and Terminer, or general gaol-delivery, after his commitment, 
or upon his trial shall be acquitted, he shall be discharged from his 
imprisonment. 

VIIL Provided always, that nothing in this act shall extend to 
discharge out of prison any person charged in debt, or other action, 
or with process in any civil cause, but that after he shall be discharged 
of his imprisonment for such his criminal offense, he shall be kept in 
custody according to the law, for such other suit. 

IX. Provided always, and be it enacted by the authority afore- 
said that if any person or persons, subject of this realm, shall be com- 
mitted to any prison or in custody of any officer or officers whatsoever, 
for any criminal or supposed criminal matter, that the said person 
shall not be removed from the said prison and custody into the custody 
of any other officer or officers; unless it be by habeas corpus or some 
other legal writ; or where the prisoner is delivered to the constable 
or other inferior officer to carry such prisoner to some common gaol; 
or where any person is sent by order of any judge of assize or justice 
of the peace to any common workhouse or house of correction; or 
where the prisoner is removed from one prison or place to another 
within the same county, in order to his or her trial or discharge in 
due course of law; or in case of sudden fire or infection, or other 
necessity; and if any person or persons shall after such commitment 
aforesaid make out and sign, or countersign, any warrant or warrants 
for such removal aforesaid, contrary to this act; as well he that 
makes or signs, or countersigns, such warrant or warrants as the officer 
or officers that obey or execute the same, shall suffer and incur the 
pains and forfeitures in this act before mentioned, both for the first 
and second offense respectively, to be recovered in manner aforesaid 
by the party grieved. 

X. Provided also, and be it further enacted by the authority 
aforesaid that it shall and may be lawful to and for any prisoner and 
prisoners as aforesaid to move and obtain his or their habeas corpus 
as well out of the High Court of Chancery or Court of Exchequer, as 
out of the courts of King's Bench or Common Pleas, or either of 
them; and if the said Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper, or any judge 
or judges, baron or barons for the time being, of the degree of the 



46 Historical Source Book 

coif, of any of the courts aforesaid, in the vacation time, upon view 
of the copy or copies of the warrant or warrants of commitment or 
detainer, or upon oath made that such copy or copies were denied as 
aforesaid, shall deny any writ of habeas corpus by this act required 
to be granted, being moved for as aforesaid, they shall severally for- 
feit to the prisoner or party grieved the sum of five hundred pounds, 
to be recovered in manner aforesaid. 

. XI. And be it enacted and declared by the authority aforesaid 
that an habeas corpus, according to the true intent and meaning of 
this act, may be directed and run into any county palatine, the cinque 
ports, or other privileged places within the kingdom of England, 
dominion of Wales, or town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and the islands 
of Jersey [and] Guernsey; any law or usage to the contrary notwith- 
standing. 

XII. And for preventing illegal imprisonments in prisons beyond 
the seas; be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid that no 
subject of this realm that now is, or hereafter shall be an inhabitant 
or resident of this kingdom of England, dominion of Wales, or town 
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, shall or may be sent prisoner into Scotland, 
Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, Tangier, or into any parts, garrisons, 
islands, or places beyond the seas, which are or at any time here- 
after shall be within or without the dominions of his Majesty, his 
heirs or successors; and that every such imprisonment is hereby 
enacted and adjudged to be illegal; and that if any of the said sub- 
jects now is or hereafter shall be so imprisoned, every such person or 
persons so imprisoned shall and may, for every such imprisonment, 
maintain by virtue of this act an action or actions of false imprison- 
ment, in any of his Majesty's courts of record, against the person or 
persons by whom he or she shall be so committed, detained, impris- 
oned, sent prisoner or transported, contrary to the true meaning of 
this act, and against all or any person or persons that shall frame, 
contrive, write, seal, or countersign any warrant or writing, for such 
commitment, detainer, imprisonment, or transportation, or shall 
be advising, aiding, or assisting in the same, or any of them; and the 
plaintiff in every such action shall have judgment to recover his 
treble costs, besides damages, which damages so to be given shall not 
be less than five hundred pounds; in which action no delay, stay, or 
stop of proceeding by rule, order, or command, nor no injunction, 
protection, or privilege whatsoever, nor any more than one impar- 
lance shall be allowed, excepting such rule of the court wherein the 



Habeas Corpus Act 47 

action shall depend, made in open court, as shall be thought in justice 
necessaty, for special cause to be expressed in the said rule; and the 
person or persons who shall knowingly frame, contrive, write, seal, 
or countersign any warrant for such commitment, detainer, or trans- 
portation, or shall so commit, detain, imprison, or transport any 
person or persons contrary to this act, or be any ways advising, aiding, 
or assisting therein, being lawfully convicted thereof, shall be dis- 
abled from thenceforth to bear any office of trust or profit within the 
said realm of England, dominion of Wales, or town of Berwick-upon- 
Tweed, or any of the islands, territories, or dominions thereunto 
belonging; and shall incur and sustain the pains, penalties, and 
forfeitures hmited, ordained, and provided in and by the statute 
of Provision and Praemunire made in the sixteenth year of King 
Richard II; and be incapable of any pardon from the king, his heirs 
or successors, of the said forfeitures, losses, or disabilities, or any 
of them. 

XIII. Provided always that nothing in this act shall extend to 
give benefit to any person who shall by contract in writing agree 
with any merchant or owner of any plantation, or other person what- 
soever, to be transported to any parts beyond the seas, and receive 
earnest upon such agreement, although that afterwards such person 
shall renounce such contract. 

XIV. Provided always, and be it enacted that if any person or 
persons, lawfully convicted of any felony, shall in open court pray to 
be transported beyond the seas, and the court shall think fit to leave 
him or them in prison for that purpose, such person or persons may 
be transported into any parts beyond the seas; this act, or anything 
therein contained to the contrary notwithstanding. 

XV. Provided also, and be it enacted that nothing herein con- 
tained shall be deemed, construed, or taken to extend to the impris- 
onment of any person before the first day of June one thousand six 
hundred seventy and nine, or to anything advised, procured, or other- 
wise done, relating to such imprisonment; anything herein contained 
to the contrary notwithstanding. 

XVI. Provided also, that if any person or persons at any time 
resident in this realm shall have committed any capital offense in 
Scotland or Ireland, or any of the islands, or foreign plantations of 
the king, his heirs or successors, where he or she ought to be tried for 
such offense, such person or persons may be sent to such place, there 
to receive such trial, in such manner as the same might have been 



48 Historical Source Book 

used before the making of this act ; anything herein contained to the 
contrary notwithstanding. 

XVII. Provided also, and be it enacted that no person or persons 
shall be sued, impleaded, molested, or troubled for any offense against 
this act, unless the party offending be sued or impleaded for the same 
within two years at the most after such time wherein the offense 
shall be committed, in case the party grieved shall not be then in 
prison; and if he shall be in prison, then within the space of two 
years after the decease of the person imprisoned, or his or her delivery 
out of prison, which shall first happen. 

XVIII. And to the intent no person may avoid his trial at the 
assizes or general gaol-delivery, by procuring his removal before the 
assizes, at such time as he cannot be brought back to receive his trial 
there; be it enacted that after the assizes proclaimed for that county 
where the prisoner is detained, no person shall be removed from the 
common gaol upon any habeas corpus granted in pursuance of this 
act, but upon any such habeas corpus shall be brought before the 
judge of assize in open court, who is thereupon to do what to justice 
shall appertain. 

XIX. Provided nevertheless, that after the assizes are ended, 
any person or persons detained may have his or her habeas corpus 
according to the direction and intention of this act. 

XX. And be it also enacted by the authority aforesaid that if 
any information, suit, or action shall be brought or exhibited against 
any person or persons for any offense committed or to be committed 
against the form of this law, it shall be lawful for such defendants to 
plead the general issue, that they are not guilty, or that they owe 
nothing, and to give such special matter in evidence to the jury that 
shall try the same, which matter being pleaded had been good and 
sufiEicient matter in law to have discharged the said defendant or 
defendants against the said information, suit, or action, and the said 
matter shall be then as available to him or them, to all intents or pur- 
poses, as if he or they had sufficiently pleaded, set forth, or alleged 
the same matter in bar or discharge of such information, suit, or 
action. 

XXI. And because many times persons charged with petty 
treason or felony, or as accessories thereunto, are committed upon 
suspicion only, whereupon they are bailable or not, according as the 
circumstances making out that suspicion are more or less weighty, 
which are best known to the justices of peace that committed the 



Habeas Corpus Act 49 

persons and have the examinations before them, or to other justices 
of peace in the county; be it therefore enacted that where any person 
shall appear to be committed by any judge or justice of the peace, 
and charged as accessory before the fact, to any petty treason or felony, 
or upon suspicion thereof, or with suspicion of petty treason or felony, 
which petty treason or felony shall be plainly and especially ex- 
pressed in the warrant of commitment, that such person shall not be 
removed or bailed by virtue of this act, or in any other manner than 
they might have been before the making of this act. 



8. BILL OF RIGHTS, 1689 ^ 

The Parliament which offered the Crown to WiUiam and 
Mary in February, 1689, accompanied its offer by a formal 
declaration of the unconstitutional acts of James II, the deposed 
king. In October of the same year the declaration was amplified 
and amended and was then passed by Parliament as the Bill 
of Rights. This celebrated statute affirmed and strengthened 
the principles of political liberty already formulated in the 
Great Charter and the Petition of Right. To it no additions 
of equal importance have since been made, except those of the 
Act of Settlement in 1701. Many clauses of the Bill of Rights 
reappear, almost unchanged, in the first ten amendments to the 
Constitution of the United States. 

Bill of Rights, 1689 

An Act for declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject, 
and for settling the Succession of the Crown 

I. Whereas the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, 
assembled at Westminster, lawfully, fully, and freely representing all 
the estates of the people of this realm, did, upon the thirteenth day 
of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred eighty- 
eight,^ present unto their Majesties, then called and known by the 
names and style of William and Mary, Prince and Princess of Orange, 
being present in their proper persons, a certain declaration in writing, 
made by the said Lords and Commons, in the words following, viz, : 

Whereas the late King James II, by the assistance of divers evil 
counselors, judges, and ministers employed by him, did endeavor 
to subvert and extirpate the Protestant religion and the laws and 
liberties of this kingdom: 

I. By assuming and exercising a power of dispensing with and 
suspending of laws, and the execution of laws, without consent of 
Parliament. 

^ Statutes of the Realm, vi, 142-145 (i William and Mary, Sess. 2, c. 2). 
2 In New Style, February 23, 1689. 

SO 



Bill of Rights 51 

2. By committing and prosecuting divers worthy prelates, for 
humbly petitioning to be excused from concurring to the same as- 
sumed power. 

3. By issuing and causing to be executed a commission under the 
Great Seal for erecting a court called the Court of Commissioners for 
Ecclesiastical Causes. 

4. By levying money for and to the use of the Crown, by pretense 
of prerogative, for other time and in other manner than the same 
was granted by ParHament. 

5. By raising and keeping a standing army within this kingdom 
in time of peace, without consent of Parliament, and quartering sol- 
diers contrary to law. 

6. By causing several good subjects, being Protestants, to be dis- 
armed, at the same time when Papists were both armed and employed 
contrary to law. 

7. By violating the freedom of election of members to serve in 
Parliament. 

S. ~lBy prosecutions in the Court of King's Bench for matters and 
causes cognizable only in Parliament; and by divers other arbitrary 
and illegal courses. 

9. And whereas of late years partial, corrupt, and unqualified 
persons have been returned and served on juries in trials, and par- 
ticularly divers jurors in trials for high treason, which were not free- 
holders. 

10. And excessive bail has been required of persons committed 
in criminal cases, to elude the benefit of the laws made for the liberty 
of the subjects. 

11. And excessive fines have been imposed, and illegal and cruel 
punishments inflicted. 

1 2. And several grants and promises made of fines and forfeitures, 
before any conviction of judgment against the persons upon whom 
the same were to be levied. 

All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known laws and 
statutes, and freedom of this realm. 

And whereas the said late King James II having abdicated the 
government, and the throne being thereby vacant, his Highness the 
Prince of Orange (whom it has pleased Almighty God to make 
the glorious instrument of delivering this kingdom from popery and 
arbitrary power) did (by the advice of the Lords Spiritual and Tem- 
poral, and divers principal persons of the Commons) cause letters 



52 Historical Source Book 

to be written to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, being Protestants, 
and other letters to the several counties, cities, universities, boroughs, 
and cinque ports, for the choosing of such persons as represent them, 
as were of right to be sent to ParHament, to meet and sit at West- 
minster upon the two-and-twentieth day of January, in this year 
one thousand six hundred eighty and eight, ^ in order to such an 
establishment, as that their religion, laws, and liberties might not 
again be in danger of being subverted; upon which letters elections 
have been accordingly made. 

And thereupon the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Com- 
mons, pursuant to their respective letters and elections, being now 
assembled in a full and free representation of this nation, taking into 
their most serious consideration the best means for attaining the ends 
aforesaid, do in the first place (as their ancestors in like case have 
usually done), for the vindicating and asserting their ancient rights 
and liberties, declare: 

1. That the pretended power of suspending of laws, or the exe- 
cution of laws, by regal authority, without consent of Parliament, is 
illegal. 

2. That the pretended power of dispensing with laws, or the 
execution of laws, by regal authority, as it has been assumed and 
exercised of late, is illegal. 

3. That the commission for erecting the late Court of Commis- 
sioners for Ecclesiastical Causes, and all other commissions and courts 
of like nature, are illegal and pernicious. 

4. That levying money for or to the use of the Crown, by pre- 
tense of prerogative, without grant of Parliament, for longer time or 
in other manner than the same is or shall be granted, is illegal. 

5. That it is the right of the subjects to petition the king, and all 
commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal. 

6. That the raising or keeping a standing army within the king- 
dom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of Parliament, is against 
law. 

7. That the subjects which are Protestants may have arms for 
their defense suitable to their conditions, and as allowed by law. 

8. That election of members of Parliament ought to be free. 

9. That the freedom of speech, and debates or proceedings in 
Parliament, ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court 
or place out of Parliament. 

1 In New Style, February i, 1689. 



Bill of Rights 53 

10. That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive 
fines imposed; nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 

11. That jurors ought to be duly impaneled and returned, and 
jurors which pass upon men in trials for high treason ought to be 
freeholders. 

12. That all grants and promises of fines and forfeitures of par- 
ticular persons before conviction are illegal and void. 

13. And that for redress of all grievances, and for the amending, 
strengthening, and preserving of the laws. Parliament ought to be 
held frequently. 

And they do claim, demand, and insist upon all and singular the 
premises, as their undoubted rights and liberties; and that no decla- 
rations, judgments, doings, or proceedings, to the prejudice of the 
people in any of the said premises, ought in any wise to be drawn 
hereafter kito consequence or example. 

To which demand of their rights they are particularly encouraged 
by the declaration of his Highness the Prince of Orange, as being the 
only means for obtaining a full redress and remedy therein. 

Having therefore an entire confidence that his said Highness the 
Prince of Orange will perfect the deliverance so far advanced by him, 
and will still preserve them from the violation of their rights, which 
they have here asserted, and from all other attempts upon their re- 
ligion, rights, and liberties: 

II. The said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, as- 
sembled at Westminster, do resolve that William and Mary, Prince 
and Princess of Orange, be, and be declared. King and Queen of Eng- 
land, France, and Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belonging, 
to hold the Crown and royal dignity of the said kingdom and domin- 
ions to them the said Prince and Princess during their lives, and the 
life of the survivor of them; and that the sole and full exercise of the 
regal power be only in and executed by the said Prince of Orange, in 
the names of the said Prince and Princess, during their joint lives; 
and after their deceases, the said Crown and royal dignity of the said 
kingdoms and dominions to be to the heirs of the body of the said 
Princess; and for default of such issue to the Princess Anne of Den- 
mark, and the heirs of her body; and for default of such issue to the 
heirs of the body of the said Prince of Orange. And the Lords Spirit- 
ual and Temporal, and Commons, do pray the said Prince and Princess 
to accept the same accordingly. 

III. And that the oaths hereafter mentioned be taken by all 



54 Historical Source Book 

persons of whom the oaths of allegiance and supremacy might be 
required by law, instead of them; and that the said oaths of allegiance 
and supremacy be abrogated. 

"I, A.B., do sincerely promise and swear that I will be faithful and 
bear true allegiance to their majesties King William and Queen Mary. 
So help me God." 

"I, A.B., do swear that I do from my heart abhor, detest, and 
abjure, as impious and heretical, that damnable doctrine and posi- 
tion that princes excomxmunicated or deprived by the Pope, or any 
authority of the See of Rome, may be deposed or murdered by their 
subjects, or any other whatsoever. And I do declare that no foreign 
prince, person, prelate, state, or potentate has, or ought to have, any 
jurisdiction, power, superiority, preeminence, or authority ecclesias- 
tical or spiritual, within this realm. So help me God." 

IV. Upon which their said Majesties did accept the Crown and 
royal dignity of the kingdoms of England, France, and Ireland, and the 
dominions thereunto belonging, according to the resolution and desire 
of the said Lords and Commons contained in the said declaration. 

V. And thereupon their Majesties were pleased that the said 
Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, being the two houses of 
Parliament, should continue to sit, and with their Majesties' royal 
concurrence make effectual provision for the settlement of the re- 
Ugion, laws, and liberties of this kingdom, so that the same for the 
future might not be in danger again of being subverted; to which 
the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, did agree and 
proceed to act accordingly. 

VI. Now in pursuance of the premises, the said Lords Spiritual 
and Temporal, and Commons, in Parliament assembled, for the rati- 
fying, confirming, and establishing the said declaration, and the 
articles, clauses, matters, and things therein contained, by the force 
of a law made in due form by authority of Parliament, do pray that 
it may be declared and enacted that all and singular the rights and 
hberties asserted and claimed in the said declaration are the true, 
ancient, and indubitable rights and liberties of the people of this 
kingdom, and so shall be esteemed, allowed, adjudged, deemed, and 
taken to be, and that all and every the particulars aforesaid shall be 
firmly and strictly holden and observed, as they are expressed in the 
said declaration; and all officers and ministers whatsoever shall serve 
their Majesties and their successors according to the same in all times 
to come. 



Bill of Rights 55 

VII. And the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, 
seriously considering how it has pleased Almighty God, in His mar- 
velous providence and merciful goodness to this nation, to provide 
and preserve their said Majesties' royal persons most happily to reign 
over us upon the throne of their ancestors, for which they render 
unto Him from the bottom of their hearts their humblest thanks and 
praises, do truly, firmly, assuredly, and in the sincerity of their hearts 
think, and do hereby recognize, acknowledge, and declare, that King 
James II, having abdicated the government, and their Majesties having 
accepted the Crown and royal dignity aforesaid, their said Majesties 
did become, were, are, and of right ought to be, by the laws of this 
realm, our sovereign liege lord and lady. King and Queen of England, 
France, and Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belonging, in and 
to whose princely persons the royal state, Crown, and dignity of the 
said realms, with all honors, styles, titles, regaHties, prerogatives, 
powers, jurisdictions and authorities to the same belonging and 
appertaining, are most fully, rightfully, and entirely invested and 
incorporated, united and annexed. 

VIII. And for preventing all questions and divisions in this 
realm, by reason of any pretended titles to the Crown, and for pre- 
serving a certainty in the succession thereof, in and upon which the 
unity, peace, tranquillity, and safety of this nation does, under God, 
wholly consist and depend, the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, 
and Commons, do beseech their Majesties that it may be enacted, 
established, and declared that the Crown and regal government of 
the said kingdomxS and dominions, with all and singular the premises 
thereunto belonging and appertaining, shall be and continue to their 
said Majesties, and the survivor of them, during their lives and the 
life of the survivor of them. And that the entire, perfect, and full 
exercise of the regal power and government be only in and executed 
by his Majesty, in the names of both their Majesties during their 
joint lives ; and after their deceases the said Crown and premises shall 
be and remain to the heirs of the body of her Majesty; and for de- 
fault of such issue, to her Royal Highness the Princess Anne of Den- 
mark, and the heirs of her body; and for default of such issue, to the 
heirs of the body of his said Majesty. And thereunto the said 
Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, do, in the name of all 
the people aforesaid, most humbly and faithfully submit themselves, 
their heirs and posterities forever; and do faithfully promise that they 
will stand to, maintain, and defend their said Majesties, and also the 



■§' 
56 Historical Source Book 

limitation and succession of the Crown herein specified and contained, , 
to the utmost of their powers, with their Hves and estates, against | 
all persons whatsoever that shall attempt anything to the contrary. 

IX. And whereas it has been found by experience that it is in- 
consistent with the safety and welfare of this Protestant kingdom , 
to be governed by a Popish prince, or by any king or queen marrying f 
a Papist, the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, do 
further pray that it may be enacted that all and every person and | 
persons that is, are, or shall be reconciled to, or shall hold communion 
with, the See or Church of Rome, or shall profess the Popish religion, 
or shall marry a Papist, shall be excluded, and be forever incapable to 
inherit, possess, or enjoy the Crown and government of this realm 
and Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belonging, or any part 
of the same, or to have, use, or exercise any regal power, authority, . 
or jurisdiction within the same; and in all and every such case or cases » 
the people of these realms shall be and are hereby absolved of their 
allegiance; and the said Crown and government shall from time to 
time descend to, and be enjoyed by, such person or persons, being 
Protestants, as should have inherited and enjoyed the same, in case 
the said person or persons so reconciled, holding communion, or pro- 
fessing, or marrying, as aforesaid, were naturally dead. 

X. And that every king and queen of this realm, who at any 
time hereafter shall come to and succeed in the Imperial Crown of this 
kingdom, shall, on the first day of the meeting of the first Parhament, 
next after his or her coming to the Crown, sitting in his or her throne 
in the House of Peers, in the presence of the Lords and Commons 
therein assembled, or at his or her coronation, before such person 
or persons who shall administer the Coronation Oath to him or her, at 
the time of his or her taking the said oath (which shall first happen) , 
make, subscribe, and audibly repeat the declaration mentioned in the 
statute made in the thirteenth year of the reign of King Charles II, 
entitled "An act for the more effectual preserving the king's person 
and government, by disabling Papists from sitting in either house of 
Parliament." But if it shall happen that such king or queen, upon 
his or her succession to the Crown of this realm, shall be under the 
age of twelve years, then every such king or queen shall make, 
subscribe, and audibly repeat the said declaration at his or her cor- 
onation, or the first day of the meeting of the first Parhament as 
aforesaid, which shall first happen after such king or queen shall 
have attained the said age of twelve years. 



Bill of Rights 57 

XI. All which their Majesties are contented and pleased shall be 
declared, enacted, and established by authority of this present Parlia- 
ment, and shall stand, remain, and be the law of this realm forever; 
and the same are by their said Majesties, by and with the advice and 
consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in Par- 
liament assembled, and by the authority of the same, declared, enacted, 
[and] estabhshed accordingly. 

XII. And be it further declared and enacted by the authority 
aforesaid, that from and after this present session of Parliament 
no dispensation by non obstante of or to any statute, or any part 
thereof, shall be allowed, but that the same shall be held void and of 
no effect, except a dispensation be allowed of in such statute, and 
except in such cases as shall be specially provided for by one or more 
bill or bills to be passed during this present session of Parliament. 

XIII. Provided that no charter, or grant, or pardon granted 
before the three-and-twentieth day of October, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand six hundred eighty-nine, shall be any ways im- 
peached or invalidated by this act, but that the same shall be and 
remain of the same force and effect in law, and no other, than as if 
this act had never been made. 



9. ACT OF SETTLEMENT, 1701 ' 

William III was childless, and his sister-in-law, Anne, 
lost her last surviving child in 1701. As the Bill of Rights had 
fixed the succession no further than Anne's descendants, Par- 
liament found it now necessary to pass the statute called the 
Act of Settlement. It prescribed that, in case of the death of 
both William and Anne without heirs, the Crown should go to 
Sophia, electress of Hanover, and her descendants. She was 
the granddaughter of James I and the nearest Protestant 
member of the Stuart house. By this arrangement Parliament 
excluded a number of still nearer representatives of the British 
royal family, because they were Roman Catholics. The Act 
of Settlement not only fixed the succession, but also imposed 
additional restrictions upon a British sovereign. These are set 
forth in Article III. 

Act of Settlement, 1701 

An Act for the further Limitation of the Crown, and better 
securing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject 

I. Whereas in the first year of the reign of your Majesty, and of 
our late most gracious sovereign lady Queen Mary (of blessed memory) 
an act of Parhament was made, entitled '' An act for declaring the 
rights and liberties of the subject, and for settHng the succession' 
of the Crown," wherein it was (amongst other things) enacted, es- 
tablished, and declared that the Crown and regal government of the 
kingdoms of England, France, and Ireland, and the dominions there- 
unto belonging, should be and continue to your Majesty and the 
said late Queen, during the joint lives of your Majesty and the said 
Queen, and to the survivor: and that after the decease of your Maj- 
esty and of the said Queen, the said Crown and regal government 
should be and remain to the heirs of the body of the said late Queen; 
and for default of such issue, to her Royal Highness the Princess 
Anne of Denmark, and the heirs of her body: and for default of such 
1 Statutes ojthe Realm, vii, 636-638 (12 and 13 William III, c. 2). ' 

58 



Act of Settlement 59 

issue, to the heirs of the body of your Majesty. And it was thereby 
further enacted that all and every person and persons that then were, 
or afterwards should be reconciled to, or shall hold communion with 
the See or Church of Rome, or should profess the Popish religion, 
or marry a Papist, should be excluded, and are by that act made 
forever incapable to inherit, possess, or enjoy the Crown and govern- 
ment of this realm and Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belong- 
ing, or any part of the same, or to have, use, or exercise any regal 
power, authority, or jurisdiction within the same: and in all and 
every such case and cases the people of these realms shall be and are 
thereby absolved of their allegiance : and that the said Crown and gov- 
ernment shall from time to time descend to and be enjoyed by such 
person or persons, being Protestants, as should have inherited and en- 
joyed the same, in case the said person or persons, so reconciled, hold- 
ing communion, professing, or marrying as aforesaid, were naturally 
dead. After the making of which statute, and the settlement therein 
contained, your Majesty's good subjects, who were restored to the 
full and free possession and enjoyment of their rehgion, rights, and 
liberties, by the providence of God giving success to your Majesty's 
just undertakings and unwearied endeavors for that purpose, had 
no greater temporal felicity to hope or wish for than to see a royal 
progeny descending from your Majesty, to whom (under God) they 
owe their tranquillity, and whose ancestors have for many years been 
principal assertors of the reformed religion and the liberties of Europe, 
and from our said most gracious sovereign lady, whose memory will 
always be precious to the subjects of these realms: and it having 
since pleased Almighty God to take away our said sovereign lady, 
and also the most hopeful Prince William Duke of Gloucester (the 
only surviving issue of her Royal Highness the Princess Anne of 
Denmark) to the unspeakable grief and sorrow of your Majesty and 
your said good subjects, who under such losses being sensibly put in 
mind that it stands wholly in the pleasure of Almighty God to 
prolong the lives of your jMajesty and of her Royal Highness, and to 
grant to your Majesty, or to her Royal Highness, such issue as may 
be inheritable to the Crown and regal government aforesaid, by the 
respective hmitations in the said recited act contained, do constantly 
implore the Divine Mercy for those blessings: and your Majesty's 
said subjects, having daily experience of your royal care and concern 
for the present and future welfare of these kingdoms, and particu- 
larly recommending from your Throne a further provision to be 



6o Historical Source Book 

made for the succession of the Crown in the Protestant Hne, for the 
happiness of the nation and the security of our rehgion; and it being 
absolutely necessary for the safety, peace, and quiet of this realm 
to obviate all doubts and contentions in the same, by reason of any 
pretended title to the Crown, and to maintain a certainty in the suc- 
cession thereof, to which your subjects may safely have recourse 
for their protection, in case the limitations in the said recited act 
should determine. Therefore, for a further provision of the succession 
of the Crown in the Protestant line, we, your Majesty's most duti- 
ful and loyal subjects, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Com- 
mons, in this present Parliament assembled, do beseech your Majesty 
that it may be enacted and declared, and be it enacted and declared 
by the king's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and con- 
sent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this 
present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, 
that the most excellent Princess Sophia, Electress and Duchess Dowa- 
ger of Hanover, daughter of the most excellent Princess Elizabeth, late 
Queen of Bohemia, daughter of our late sovereign lord King James I, 
of happy memory, be and is hereby declared to be the next in succes- 
sion, in the Protestant line, to the imperial Crown and dignity of the 
said realms of England, France, and Ireland, with the dominions 
and territories thereunto belonging, after his Majesty and the Prin- 
cess Anne of Denmark, and in default of issue of the said Princess 
Anne, and of his Majesty respectively: and that from and after the 
deceases of his said Majesty, our now sovereign lord, and of her Royal 
Highness the Princess Anne of Denmark, and for default of issue of 
the said Princess Anne, and of his Majesty respectively, the Crown 
and regal government of the said kingdoms of England, France, and 
Ireland, and of the dominions thereunto belonging, with the royal 
state and dignity of the said realms, and all honors, styles, titles, 
regalities, prerogatives, powers, jurisdictions, and authorities, to the 
same belonging and appertaining, shall be, remain, and continue to 
the said most excellent Princess Sophia, and the heirs of her body, 
being Protestants: and thereunto the said Lords Spiritual and Tem- 
poral, and Commons, shall and will, in the name of all the people of 
this realm, most humbly and faithfully submit themselves, their heirs 
and posterities; and do faithfully promise that after the deceases of 
his Majesty and her Royal Highness, and the failure of the heirs of 
their respective bodies, to stand to, maintain, and defend the said 
Princess Sophia^ and th? heirs of her body, being Protestants, accord- 



Act of Settlement 6i 

ing to the limitation and succession of the Crown in this act specified 
and contained, to the utmost of their powers, with their lives and es- 
tates, against all persons whatsoever that shall attempt anything to 
the contra^^^ 

II. Provided always, and it is hereby enacted that all and every 
person and persons, who shall or may take or inherit the said Crown, 
by virtue of the limitation of this present act, and is, are, or shall be 
reconciled to, or shall hold communion with, the See or Church of 
Rome, or shall profess the Popish religion, or shall marry a Papist, 
shall be subject to such incapacities, as in such case or cases are by 
the said recited act provided, enacted, and established; and that 
every king and queen of this realm, who shall come to and succeed in 
the imperial Crown of this kingdom, by virtue of this act, shall have 
the Coronation Oath administered to him, her or them, at their re- 
spective coronations, according to the act of Parhament made in the 
first year of the reign of his Majesty, and the said late Queen Mary, 
entitled ''An act for establishing the Coronation Oath," and shall 
make, subscribe, and repeat the declaration in the act first above 
recited, mentioned, or referred to, in the manner and form thereby 
prescribed. 

III. And whereas it is requisite and necessary that some further 
provision be made for securing our religion, laws, and liberties, from 
and after the death of his Majesty and the Princess Anne of Denmark, 
and in default of issue of the body of the said Princess, and of his 
Majesty respectively; be it enacted by the king's most excellent 
Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual 
and Temporal, and Commons, in Parliament assembled, and by the 
authority of the same: 

That whosoever shall hereafter come to the possession of this 
Crown shall join in communion with the Church of England, as by law 
established. 

That in case the Crown and imperial dignity of this realm shall 
hereafter come to any person, not being a native of this kingdom of 
England, this nation be not obliged to engaged in any war for the 
defense of any dominions or territories which do not belong to the 
Crown of England, without the consent of Parliament. 

That no person who shall hereafter come to the possession of this 
Crown shall go out of the dominions of England, Scotland, or Ireland, 
without consent of Parliament.^ 

1 Repealed in the first year of George I's reign (17 14). 



62 Historical Source Book 

That from and after the time that the further limitation by this 
act shall take effect, all matters and things relating to the well govern- 
ing of this kingdom, which are properly cognizable in the Privy Coun- 
cil by the laws and customs of this realm, shall be transacted there, 
and all resolutions taken thereupon shall be signed by such of the 
Privy Council as shall advise and consent to the same.^ 

That after the said limitation shall take effect as aforesaid, no 
person born out of the kingdoms of England, Scotland, or Ireland, 
or the dominions thereunto belonging (although he be naturalized 
or made a denizen, except such as are born of EngHsh parents), shall 
be capable to be of the Privy Council, or a member of either house 
of Parhament, or to enjoy any office or place of trust, either civil 
or military, or to have any grant of lands, tenements, or heredita- 
ments from the Crown, to himself or to any other or others in trust 
for him. 

That no person who has an office or place of profit under the king, 
or receives a pension from the Crown, shall be capable of serving as 
a member of the House of Commons.^ 

That after the said limitation shall take eff^ect as aforesaid, judges' 
commissions be made guamdiu se bene gesserint,^ and their salaries 
ascertained and established; but upon the address of both houses 
of Parliament it may be lawful to remove them. 

That no pardon under the Great Seal of England be pleadable 
to an impeachnient by the Commons in Parliament. 

IV. And whereas the laws of England are the birthright of the 
people thereof, and all the kings and queens, who shall ascend the 
throne of this realm, ought to administer the government of the same 
according to the said laws, and all their officers and ministers ought 
to serve them respectively according to the same: the said Lords 
Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, do therefore further humbly 
pray that all the laws and statutes of this realm for securing the 
established religion, and the rights and liberties of the people thereof, 
and all other laws and statutes of the same now in force, may be 
ratified and confirmed, and the same are by his Majesty, by and wdth 
the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and 
Commons, and by the auhority of the same, ratified and confirmed 
accordingly. 

1 Repealed by 4 Anne, c. 8, and 6 Anne, c. 7. 

2 Repealed in the fourth year of Anne's reign (1705). 

J "As long as they shall properly perform their duties." 



10. RESOLUTIONS OF THE STAMP ACT CONGRESS, 

1765 1 

After the passage of the Stamp Act in March, 1765, the 
Massachusetts House of Representatives, on the motion of 
James Otis, sent a circular letter to the other colonies, propos- 
ing that a congress be held in New York "to consider of a 
general and united, dutiful, loyal, and humble representation 
of their condition to his Majesty and to the Parliament, and to 
implore relief." The Congress met the next October, delegates 
from nine colonies being present. The following Declaration 
of Rights and Grievances, which had been drafted by John 
Dickinson, a delegate from Pennsylvania, was adopted. It 
formed the first utterance of any considerable body of Ameri- 
can opinion on the issues which were soon to separate the 
colonists from their mother country. 

Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress, 1765 

The members of this congress, sincerely devoted, with the warm- 
est sentiments of affection and duty to his Majesty's person and 
government, inviolably attached to the present happy establish- 
m.ent of the Protestant succession, and with minds deeply im- 
pressed by a sense of the present and impending misfortunes of 
the British colonies on this continent; having considered, as 
maturely as time will permit, the circumstances of said colonies, 
esteem it our indispensable duty to make the following declara- 
tions of our humble opinions, respecting the most essential rights 
and liberties of the colonists, and of the grievances under which 
they labor by reason of several late acts of Parliament. 
I. That his Majesty's subjects in these colonies owe the same 
allegiance to the Crown of Great Britain that is owing from his sub- 
jects born within the realm, and all due subordination to that august 
body, the Parliament of Great Britain. 

1 The Writings of John Dickinson, vol. i, pp. 183-187. Edited by P. L. Ford. 
Philadelphia, 1895 (Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, vol. xiv). 

63 



64 Historical Source Book 

II. That his Majesty's Hege subjects in these colonies are en- 
titled to all the inherent rights and liberties of his natural born sub- 
jects within the kingdom of Great Britain. 

III. That it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people, 
and the undoubted right of Englishmen, that no tax be imposed 
upon them but with their own consent, given personally, or by 
their respresentatives. 

IV. That the people of these colonies are not, and from their 
local circumstances cannot be, represented in the House of Commons 
in Great Britain. 

V. That the only representatives of the people of these colonies 
are the persons chosen therein by themselves; and that no taxes ever 
have been or can be constitutionally imposed on them, but by their 
respective legislatures. 

VI. That all supplies to the Crown being free gifts of the people, 
it is unreasonable and inconsistent with the principles and spirit of 
the British constitution for the people of Great Britain to grant to 
his Majesty the property of the co onies. 

VII. That trials by jury are the inherent and inva'uable right of 
every British subject in these colonies. 

VIII. That the late act of Parhament, entitled, "An act for 
granting certain stamp duties and other duties in the British col- 
onies and plantations in America," etc., by imposing taxes on the 
inhabitants of these colonies, and the sa d act and several other 
acts, by extending the jurisdiction of the courts of admiralty beyond 
its ancient limits, have a tendency to subvert the rights and 
liberties of the colonists. 

IX. That the duties imposed by several late acts of Parliament, 
from the peculiar circumstances of these colonies, will be extremely 
burdensome and grievous, and, from the scarcity of specie, the pay- 
ment of them absolutely impracticable. 

X. That [as] the profits of the trade of these colonies ultimately 
center in Great Britain, to pay for the manufactures which they are 
obliged to take from thence, they eventually contribute very largely 
to all supplies granted there to the Crown. 

XI. That the restrictions imposed by several late acts of Par- 
liament, on the trade of these colonies, will render them unable to 
purchase the manufactures of Great Britain. 

XII. That the increase, prosperity, and happiness of these 
colonies depend on the full and free enjoyment of their rights and 



Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress 65 

liberties, and an intercourse with Great Britain mutually affection- 
ate and advantageous. 

XIII. That it is the right of the British subjects in these colonies 
to petition the king or either house of Parliament. 

Lastly, That it is the indispensable duty of these colonies to the 
best of sovereigns, to the mother country, and to themselves, to 
endeavor, by a loyal and dutiful address to his Majesty, and humble 
applications to both houses of Parliament, to procure the repeal of 
the act for granting certain stamp duties, of all clauses of any other 
act of Parliament, whereby the jurisdiction of the admiralty is 
extended as aforesaid, and of other acts for the restriction of 
American commerce. 



11. VIRGINIA BILL OF RIGHTS, 1776 ^ 

A CONVENTION which met at Willkmsburg in May, 1776, 
not only framed a complete constitution for Virginia, but also 
adopted a separate Declaration (or Bill) of Rights, drafted by 
George Mason. The document should be compared, on the 
one side, with the British Bill of Rights and Act of Settlement, 
and, on the other side, with the Declaration of Independence 
and the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United 
States. Nowhere else, perhaps, can be found so admirable 
an exposition of the American theory of government. 

Virginia Bill of Rights, 1776 

A Declaration of Rights made by the representatives of the good 
people of Virginia, assembled in full and free convention, which 
rights do pertain to them and their posterity, as the basis and 
foundation of government. 

I. That all men are by nature equally free and independent, 
and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a 
state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest 
their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the 
means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and ob- 
taining happiness and safety. 

II. That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, 
the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and 
at all times amenable to them. 

III. That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the com- 
mon benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or com- 
munity; of all the various modes and forms of government, that is 
best which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness 
and safety, and is most effectually secured against the danger of 
maladministration; and tiiat, when any government shall be found 

1 B. P. Poore, The Federal and State ConstitiUions, Colonial Charters, and Other 
Organic Laws oj the United States, part ii, pp. 1908-1909. Second Edition. Wash- 
ington, 1878. 

66 



Virginia Bill of Rights 67 

inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the com- 
munity has ah indubitable, inahenable, and indefeasible right to 
reform, alter, or abolish it in such manner as shall be judged most 
conducive to the public weal. 

IV. That no m^an, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or 
separate emoluments or privileges from the community, but in con- 
sideration of public services; which, not being descendable, neither 
ought the offices t)f magistrate, legislator, or judge to be hereditary. 

V. That the legislative and executive powers of the State should 
be separate and distinct from the judiciary; and that members of 
the two first may be restrained from oppression, by feeling and partic- 
ipating [in] the burdens of the people, they should, at fixed periods, 
be reduced to a private station, return into that body from which 
they were originally taken, and the vacancies be supphed by frequent, 
certain, and regular elections, in which all, or any part of the former 
members, to be again eligible, or ineligible, as the laws shall direct. 

VI. That elections of members to serve as representatives of 
the people, in assembly, ought to be free; and that all men, having 
sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and attach- 
ment to, the community, have the right of suffrage, and cannot be 
taxed or deprived of their property for pubHc uses, without their 
own consent, or that of their representatives so elected, nor bound 
by any law to which they have not in like manner assented for the 
public good. 

VII. That all power of suspending laws, or the execution of laws 
by any authority, without consent of the representatives of the people, 
is injurious to their rights, and ought not to be exercised. 

VIII. That in all capital or criminal prosecutions a man has a 
right to demand the cause and nature of his accusation, to be con- 
fronted with the accusers and witnesses, to call for evidence in his 
favor, and to a speedy trial by an impartial jury of twelve men of 
his vicinage, without whose unanimous consent he cannot be found 
guilty; nor can he be compelled to give evidence against himself; 
that no man be deprived of his liberty, except by the law of the land 
or the judgment of his peers. 

IX. That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive 
fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 

X. That general warrants, whereby an officer or messenger 
may be commanded to search suspected places without evidence of 
a fact committed, or to seize any person or persons not named, or 



68 Historical Source Book 

whose offense is not particularly described and supported by evi- 
dence, are grievous and oppressive, and ought not to be granted. 

XI. That in controversies respecting property and in suits be- 
tween man and man, the ancient trial by jury is preferable to any 
other, and ought to be held sacred. 

XII. That the freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks 
of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments. 

XIII. That a well regulated militia, composed of the body of 
the people trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense 
of a free state; that standing armies, in tihie of peace, should be 
avoided, as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military 
should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil 
power. 

XIV. That the people have a right to uniform government; 
and, therefore, that no government, separate from, or independent 
of the government of Virginia, ought to be erected or established 
within the limits thereof. 

XV. That no free government, or the blessings of liberty, can 
be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, mod- 
eration, temperance, frugality, and virtue, and by frequent recurrence 
to fundamental principles. 

XVI. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, 
and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and 
conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally 
entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of 
conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Chris- 
tian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other. 



12. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, 1776 

The Second Continental Congress, including delegates from 
all the colonies, assembled at Philadelphia in May, 1775. A 
year later, after the failure of all attempts at conciliation with 
Great Britain, Congress recommended that the colonies set 
up governments of their own. In June, 1776, a committee was 
appointed to prepare a declaration "that these United Colonies 
are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states." 
The committee consisted of Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John 
Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Frankhn of Pennsylvania, 
Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and R. R. Livingston of New 
York. Jefferson drew up the draft of the proposed declaration, 
but its phraseology was carefully revised by the other members 
of the committee and afterwards by Congress. The Declara- 
tion of Independence was agreed to on July 4 and ordered to be 
proclaimed before the army and in each one of the states. Sub- 
sequently (August 2) the members of Congress then present 
signed their names to the document. At least six signatures 
were added later, making fifty-six in all. Several of those who 
signed it on August 2 were absent when it was adopted on July 4; 
and not all who voted for it in July signed it the following 
August. In the original document, as preserved in the De- 
partment of State, the whole matter runs on without a break, 
except for numerous dashes. The present paragraphing is 
that found in the copy inserted in the congressional journal. 

Declaration of Independence, 1776 

The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of 

America 

I. When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for 

one people to dissolve the poHtical bands which have connected them 

with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the 

1 Revised Statutes of the United States, pp. 3-5. Second Edition. Washington, 

1878. 

69 



70 Historical Source Book 

separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's 
God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind re- 
quires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the- 
separation. j 

II. We hold these truths to be self-evident : that all men are created I 
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalien- 
able rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted 
among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the 
governed. That w^henever any form of government becomes de- 
structive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to 
aboKsh it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on 
such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them 
shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Pru- 
dence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should 
not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all 
experience has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, 
while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the 
forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of 
abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, 
evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is 
their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government and to 
provide new guards for their future security. — Such has been the 
patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity 
which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. 
The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of re- 
peated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the estab- 
lishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, 
let facts be submitted to a candid world. 

III. He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and 
necessary for the public good. 

He has forbidden his governers to pass laws of immediate and 
pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his 
assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly 
neglected to attend to them. 

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large 
districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right 
of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and 
formidable to tyrants only. 

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncom- 



Declalration of Independence 71 

fortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for 
the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. 

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing 
with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. 

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause 
others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of 
annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; 
the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of 
invasion from without and convulsions within. 

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; 
for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; 
refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and rais- 
ing the conditions of new appropriations of lands. 

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his 
assent to laws for estabhshing judiciary powers. 

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure 
of their offices and the amount and payment of their salaries. 

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms 
of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. 

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies with- 
out the consent of our legislatures. 

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior 
to the civil power. 

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign 
to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his 
assent to their acts of pretended legislation: 

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: 

For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any 
murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states: 

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world: 

For imposing taxes on us without our consent : 

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury: 

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses: 

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring 
province,^ establishing therein an arbitrary government, and en- 
larging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit 
instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies: 

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable 
laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments: 
1 Quebec. The reference is to the Quebec Act, 1774. 



72 Historical Source Book 

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves 
invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his 
protection and waging war against us. 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, 
and destroyed the lives of our people. 

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercena- 
ries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already! 
begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled 
in the most barbarous ages and totally unworthy the head of a civiHzed 
nation. 

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high 
seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners i 
of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. 

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has en- 
deavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless 
Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished 
destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions. 

IV. In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for re- 
dress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been 
answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus 
marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be thfe 
ruler of a free people. 

V. Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. 
We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legis- 
lature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have 
reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settle- 
ment here. We have appealed to their native justice and magna- 
nimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common 
kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably inter- 
rupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been 
deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, there- 
fore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, 
and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in 
peace friends. 

VI. We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of Am- 
erica, in general Congress assembled, appealing to the supreme Judge 
of the' world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by 
authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and 
declare. That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be 



Declaration of Independence . 73 

free and independent states; that they are absolved from all alle- 
giance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between 
them and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dis- 
solved; and that as free and independent states they have full power 
to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, 
and to do all other acts and things which independent states may 
of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm 
reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge 
to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.^ 

1 Signed by John Hancock and fifty-five other representatives of the Thirteen 
Colonies. 



13. ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION, 1778 ^ 

Congress in June, 1776, appointed a committee, consisting 
of a member from each state, to prepare a frame of government 
for the confederated states. The committee reported through 
its chairman, John Dickinson, in the middle of July. The sub- 
ject was then discussed at intervals until November 15, 1777, 
when the Articles of Confederation were adopted. They were 
then submitted to the state legislatures for approval. On 
July 9, 1778, the delegates of eight states in Congress signed 
the document, according to their instructions. The adhesion 
of the five remaining states was secured by March i, 1 781, at 
which time, therefore, the Articles came into effect. 

Articles or Confederation, 1778 

To All to Whom these Presents shall come, we the Utider- 
si^ned Delegates of the States affixed to our Names send 
Greeting. . . 

I. The style of this confederacy shall be ''The United States of 
America." 

II. Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, ' 
and every power, jurisdiction, and right which is not by this con- 
federation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress 
assembled. 

III. The said states hereby severally enter into a firm league 
of friendship with each other, for their common defense, the security 
of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding them- 
selves to assist each other against all force offered to, or attacks 
made upon them, or any of them, on account of reHgion, sovereignty, 
trade, or any other pretense whatever. 

IV. The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and 
intercourse among the people of the different states in this union, 
the free inhabitants of these states, paupers, vagabonds, and fugi- 

1 Revised Statutes of the United States, pp. 7-1 1. Second Edition. Washington, 
1878. 

74 



Articles of Confederation 75 

tives from justice excepted, shall be entitled to all privileges and 
immunities of free citizens in the several states; and the people of 
each state shall have free ingress and regress to and from any other 
state, and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and commerce, 
subject to the same duties, impositions, and restrictions as the in- 
habitants thereof respectively, provided that such restrictions shall 
not extend so far as to prevent the removal of property imported 
into any state to any other state of which the owner is an inhabitant; 
provided also that no imposition, duties, or restriction shall be laid 
by any state on the property of the United States, or either of them. 

If any person guilty of, or charged with treason, felony, or other 
high misdemeanor in any state shall flee from justice, and be found 
in any of the United States, he shall, upon demand, of the governor 
or executive power of the state from which he fled, be delivered up 
and removed to the state having jurisdiction of his offense. 

Full faith and credit shall be given in each of these states to the 
records, acts, and judicial proceeding of the courts and magistrates 
of every other state. 

V. For the more convenient management of the general interest 
of the United States, delegates shall be annually appointed in such 
manner as the legislature of each state shall direct, to meet in Con- 
gress on the first Monday in November, in every year, with a power 
reserved to each state to recall its delegates, or any of them, at any 
time within the year, and to send others in their stead for the re- 
mainder of the year. 

No state shall be represented in Congress by less than two, nor 
by more than seven members; and no person shall be capable of 
being a delegate for more than three years in any term of six years; 
nor shall any person, being a delegate, be capable of holding any 
oihce, under the United States, for which he, or another for his bene- 
fit, receives any salary, fees, or emolument of any kind. 

Each state shall maintain its own delegates in a meeting of the 
states, and while they act as members of the committee of the states. 

In determining questions in the United States, in Congress as- 
sembled, each state shall have one vote. 

Freedom of speech and debate in Congress shall not be impeached 
or questioned in any court or place out of Congress, and the members 
of Congress shall be protected in their persons from arrests and im- 
prisonments during the time of their going to and from, and attend- 
ance T)n Congress, except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace. 



76 Historical Source Book 

VI. No state, without the consent of the United States in Con- 
gress assembled, shall send any embassy to, or receive any embassy 
from, or enter into any conference, agreement, alliance, or treaty 
with any king, prince, or state; nor shall any person holding any 
office of profit or trust under the United States, or any of them, 
accept of any present, emolument, office, or title of any kind what- 
ever from any king, prince, or foreign state; nor shall the United 
States in Congress assembled, or any of them, grant any title of 
nobility. ^ 

No two or more states shall enter into any treaty, confederation, 
or alliance whatever between them, without the consent of the United 
States in Congress assembled, specifying accurately the purposes for 
which the same is to be entered into, and how long it shall continue. 

No state shall lay any imposts or duties which may interfere 
with any stipulations in treaties, entered into by the United States 
in Congress assembled, with any king, prince, or state, in pursuance 
of any treaties already proposed by Congress to the courts of France 
and Spain. 

No vessels of war shall be kept up in time of peace by any state, 
except such number only as shall be deemed necessary by the United 
States in Congress assembled, for the defense of such state or its 
trade; nor shall any body of forces be kept up by any state, in time 
of peace, except such number only as in the judgment of the United 
States in Congress assembled shall be deemed requisite to garrison 
the forts necessary for the defense of such state; but every state 
shall always keep up a well regulated and disciplined militia, suffi- 
ciently armed and accoutered, and shall provide and constantly 
have ready for use, in public stores, a due number of field pieces 
and tents and a proper quantity of arms, ammunition, and camp 
equipage. 

No state shall engage in any war without the consent of the 
United States in Congress assembled, unless such state be actually 
invaded by enemies, or shall have received certain advice of a resolu- 
tion being formed- by some nation of Indians to invade such state, 
and the danger is so imminent as not to admit of delay till the United 
States in Congress assem])led can be consulted; nor shall any state 
grant commissions to any ships or vessels of war, nor letters of marque 
or reprisal, except it be after a declaration of war by the United 
States in Congress assembled, and then only against the kingdom 
or state and the subjects thereof against which war has been so de- 



Articles of Confederation 77 

dared, and under such regulations as shall be established by the 
United States in Congress assembled, unless such state be infested 
by pirates, in which case vessels of war may be fitted out for that 
occasion and kept so long as the danger shall continue, or until the 
United States in Congress assembled shall determine otherwise. 

VII. When land forces are raised by any state for the common 
defense, all officers of or under the rank of colonel shall be appointed 
by the legislature of each state respectively by whom such forces 
shall be raised, or in such manner as such state shall direct, and all 
vacancies shall be filled up by the state which first made the ap- 
pointment. 

VIII. Ail charges of war and all other expenses that shall be 
incurred for the common defense or general welfare, and allowed by 
the United States in Congress assembled, shall be defrayed out of 
a common treasury, which shall be supplied by the several states, 
in proportion to the value of all land within each state, granted to 
or surveyed for any person, as such land and the buildings and im- 
provements thereon shall be estimated according to such mode as 
the United States in Congress assembled shall from time to time 
direct and appoint. The taxes for paying that proportion shall be 
laid and levied by the authority and direction of the legislatures 
of the several states, within the time agreed upon by the United 
States in Congress assembled. 

IX. The United States in Congress assembled shall have the 
sole and exclusive right and power of determining on peace and war, 
except in the cases mentioned in the sixth article — of sending and 
receiving ambassadors — entering into treaties and alliances, pro- 
vided that no treaty of commerce shall be made whereby the legis- 
lative power of the respective states shall be restrained from imposing 
such imposts and duties on foreigners as their own people are sub- 
jected to, or from prohibiting he exportation or importation of any 
species of goods or commodities whatsoever — of establishing rules 
for deciding in all cases what captures on land or water shall be 
legal, and in what manner prizes taken by land or naval forces in 
the service of the United States shall be divided or appropriated 
— of granting letters of marque and reprisal in times of peace — ap- 
pointing courts for the trial of piracies and felonies committed on the 
high seas and establishing courts for receiving and determining finally 
appeals in all cases of captures, provided that no member of Con- 
gress shall be appointed a judge of any of the said courts. 



78 Historical Source Book 

The United States in Congress assembled shall also be the last 
resort on appeal in all disputes and differences now subsisting or 
that hereafter may arise between two or more states concerning 
boundary, jurisdiction, or any other cause whatever; which authority 
shall always be exercised in the manner following. Whenever the 
legislative or executive authority or lawful agent of any state in 
controversy with another shall present a petition to Congress, stating 
the matter in question and praying for a hearing, notice thereof 
shall be given by order of Congress to the legislative or executive 
authority of the other state in controversy, and a day assigned 
for the appearance of the parties by their lawful agents, who shall 
then be directed to appoint by joint consent commissioners or 
judges to constitute a court for hearing and determining the matter 
in question: but if they cannot agree, Congress shall name three 
persons out of each of the United States, and from the list of such 
persons each party shall alternately strike out one, the petitioners 
beginning, until the number shall be reduced to thirteen; and from 
that number not less than seven, nor more than nine names as Con- 
gress shall direct, shall in the presence of Congress be drawn out by 
lot, and the persons whose names shall be so drawn, or any five of 
them, shall be commissioners or judges, to hear and finally deter- 
mine the controversy, so always as a major part of the judges who 
shall hear the cause shall agree in the determination: and if either 
party shall neglect to attend at the day appointed, without showing 
reasons, which Congress shall judge sufficient, or being present shall 
refuse to strike, the Congress shall proceed to nominate three persons 
out of each state, and the Secretary of Congress shall strike in behalf 
of such party absent or refusing; and the judgment and sentence of 
the court to be appointed, in the manner before prescribed, shall be 
final and conclusive; and if any of the parties shall refuse to submit 
to the authority of such court, or to appear or defend their claim 
or cause, the court shall nevertheless proceed to pronounce sentence 
or judgment, which shall in like manner be final and decisive, the 
judgment or sentence and other proceedings being in either case 
transmitted to Congress and lodged among the acts of Congress for 
the security of the parties concerned; provided that every commis- 
sioner, before he sits in judgment, shall take an oath to be adminis- 
tered by one of the judges of the supreme or superior court of the 
state, where the cause shall be tried, "well and truly to hear and 
determine the matter in question, according to the best of his judg- 



Articles of Confederation 79 

ment, without favor, affection, or hope of reward": provided also 
that no state shall be deprived of territory for the benefit of the 
United States. 

All controversies concerning the private right of soil claimed 
under different grants of two or more states, whose jurisdiction as 
they may respect such lands, and the states which passed such 
grants are adjusted, the said grants or either of them being at the 
same time claimed to have originated antecedent to such settlement 
of jurisdiction, shall, on the petition of either party to the Congress 
of the United States, be finally determined as near as may be in the 
same manner as is before prescribed for deciding disputes respecting 
territorial jurisdiction between different states. 

The United States in Congress assembled shall also have the sole 
and exclusive right and power of regulating the alloy and value of 
coin struck by their own authority, or by that of the respective 
states — fixing the standard of weights and measures throughout the 
United States — regulating the trade and managing all affairs with 
the Indians, not members of any of the states, provided that the 
legislative right of any state within its own limits be not infringed 
or violated — establishing and regulating post offices from one state 
to another throughout all the United States, and exacting such post- 
age on the papers passing through the same as may be requisite to 
defray the expenses of the said ofiice — appointing all ofiEcers of the 
land forces in the service of the United States, excepting regimental 
officers — appointing all the officers of the naval forces and com- 
missioning all officers whatever in the service of the United States 
— making rules for the government and regulation of the said land 
and naval forces and directing their operations. 

The United States in Congress assembled shall have authority 
to appoint a committee, to sit in the recess of Congress, to be denom- 
inated a Committee of the States, and to consist of one delegate 
from each state; and to appoint such other committees and civil 
officers as may be necessary for managing the general affairs of the 
United States under their direction — to appoint one of their num- 
ber to preside, provided that no person be allowed to serve in the 
office of president more than one year in any term of three years; 
to ascertain the necessary sums of money to be raised for the service 
of the United States, and to appropriate and apply the same for 
defraying the public expenses — to borrow money or emit bills on 
the credit of the United States, transmitting every half year to the 



8o Historical Source Book 

respective states an account of the sums of money so borrowed or 
emitted — to build and equip a navy — to agree upon the number 
of land forces, and to make requisitions from each state for its quota, 
in proportion to the number of white inhabitants in such state; which 
requisition shall be binding, and thereupon the legislature of each 
state shall appoint the regimental officers, raise the men, and clothe, 
arm, and equip them in a soldier-hke manner, at the expense of the 
United States; and the officers and men so clothed, armed, and 
equipped shall march to the place appointed, and within the time 
Cgreed on by the United States in Congress assembled. But if the 
United States in Congress assembled shall, on consideration of 
circumstances, judge proper that any state should not raise men, or 
should raise a smaller number than its quota, and that any other 
state should raise a greater number of men than the quota thereof, 
such extra number shall be raised, officered, clothed, armed, and 
equipped in the same manner as the quota of such state, unless the 
legislature of such state shall judge that such extra number cannot 
be safely spared out of the same, in which case they shall raise, officer, 
clothe, arm, and equip as many of such extra number as they judge 
can be safely spared. And the officers and men so clothed, armed, 
and equipped shall march to the place appointed, and within the 
time agreed on by the United States in Congress assembled. 

The United States in Congress assembled shall never engage in 
a war, nor grant letters of marque and reprisal in time of peace, nor 
enter into any treaties or alliances, nor coin money, nor regulate the 
value thereof, nor ascertain the sums and expenses necessary for the 
defense and welfare of the United States, or any of them, nor emit 
bills, nor borrow money on the credit of the United States, nor ap- 
propriate money, nor agree upon the number of vessels of war to 
be built or purchased, or the number of land or sea forces to be raised, 
nor appoint a commander-in-chief of the army or navy, unless nine 
states^^ assent to the same: nor shall a question on any other point, 
except for adjourning from day to day, be determined, unless by the 
votes of a majority of the United States in Congress assembled. 

The Congress of the United States shall have power to adjourn 
to any time within the year and to any place within the United 
States, so that no period of adjournment be for a longer duration 
than the space of six months, and shall publish the journal of their 
proceedings monthly, except such parts thereof relating to treat- 
ies, alliances, or military operations as in their judgment require 



Articles of Confederation 8i 

secrecy; and the nays and yeas of the delegates of each state on any 
question shall be entered on the journal, when it is desired by any 
delegate; and the delegates of a state, or any of them, at his or their 
request shall be furnished with a transcript of the said journal, ex- 
cept such parts as are above excepted, to lay before the legislatures 
of the several states. 

X. The Committee of the States, or any nine of them, shall be 
authorized to execute, in the recess of Congress, such of the powers 
of Congress as the United States in Congress assembled, by the 
consent of nine states, shall from time to time think expedient to 
vest them with; provided that no power be delegated to the said 
committee for the exercise of which, by the Articles of Confederation, 
the voice of nine states in the Congress of the United States assem- 
bled is requisite. 

XI. Canada, acceding to this confederation and joining in the 
measures of the United States, shall be admitted into, and entitled 
to all of the advantages, of this union: but no other colony shall be 
admitted into the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine 
states. 

XII. All bills of credit emitted, moneys borrowed, and debts 
contracted by or under the authority of Congress, before the assem- 
bling of the United States, in pursuance of the present confederation, 
shall be deemed and considered as a charge against the United States, 
for payTQent and satisfaction whereof the said United States and 
the public faith, are hereby solemnly pledged. 

XIII. Every state shaU abide by the determinations of the 
United States in Congress assembled on all questions which by this 
confederation are submitted to them. And the articles of this 
confederation shall be inviolably observed by every state, and the 
union shall be perpetual; nor shall any alteration at any time here- 
after be made in any of them; unless such alteration be agreed to in 
a Congress of the United States, and be afterwards confirmed by 
the legislatures of every state. 

And whereas it has pleased the great Governor of the world to 
incline the hearts of the legislatures we respectively represent in 
Congress to approve of, and to authorize us to ratify the said Articles 
of Confederation and Perpetual Union. Know ye that we the under- 
signed delegates,^ by virtue of the pov/er and authority to us given 
for that purpose, do by these presents, in the name and in behalf 
^ The names of the signers (forty-eight in niimber) are omitted. 



82 Historical Source Book 

of our respective constituents, fully and entirely ratify and confirm 
each and every of the said Articles of Confederation and Perpetual 
Union, and all and singular the matters and things therein contained: 
and we do further solemnly plight and engage the faith of our respec- 
tive constituents that they shall abide by the determinations of the 
United States in Congress assembled on all questions which, by the 
said confederation, are submitted to them. And that the articles 
thereof shall be inviolably observed by the states we respectively 
represent, and that the union shall be perpetual. 

In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands in Congress. 
Done at Philadelphia in the state of Pennsylvania the ninth day of 
July in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy- 
eight, and in the third year of the independence of America. 



14. NORTHWEST ORDINANCE, 1787 ^ 

TfflS Ordinance, which has provided the model for the govern- 
ment of American territories, was adopted on July 13, 1787, at 
a session of Congress in New York. The national domains 
described in the instrument included what are now Ohio, In- 
diana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, together with part of 
Minnesota. All this region had been ceded by the states to 
the Federal government, to be administered in the interests of 
the whole people. Articles I, II, III, and VI of the final 
section, by which prospective settlers were guaranteed the fullest 
measure of religious and civil liberty, deserve attentive reading. 

Northwest Ordinance, 1787 

An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the 
United States northwest of the River Ohio 

Section i. Be it ordained by the United States in Congress as- 
sembled, That the said territory, for the purposes of temporary 
government, be one district, subject, however, to be di\aded into 
two districts, as future circumstances may, in the opinion of Con- 
gress, make it expedient. 

Section 2. Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That the 
estates both of resident and non-resident proprietors in the said 
territory, dying intestate, shall descend to, and be distributed among, 
their children and the descendants of a deceased child in equal parts, 
the descendants of a deceased child or grandchild to take the share 
of their deceased parent in equal parts among them: and where 
there shall be no children or descendants, then in equal parts to the 
next of kin, in equal degree; and among collaterals, the children of 
a deceased brother or sifter of the intestate shall have, in equal parts 
among them, their deceased parent's share; and there shall, in no 
case, be a distinction between kindred of the whole and half blood; 
saving in all cases to the widow of the intestate her third part of 

1 Revised Statutes of the United Stales, pp. is-16. Second Edition. Washington, 
1878. 

83 



84 Historical Source Book 

the real estate for life, and one-third part of the personal estate; 
and this law relative to descents and dower shall remain in full force 
until altered by the legislature of the district. And until the governor 
and judges shall adopt laws as hereinafter mentioned, estates in the 
said territory may be devised or bequeathed by wills in writing, 
signed and sealed by him or her in whom the estate may be (being 
of full age) and attested by three witnesses; and real estates may be 
conveyed by lease and release, or bargain and sale, signed, sealed, 
and delivered by the person, being of full age, in whom the estate 
may be, and attested by two witnesses, provided such wills be duly 
proved, and such conveyances be acknowledged, or the execution 
thereof duly proved, and be recorded within one year after proper 
magistrates, courts, and registers shall be appointed for that purpose; 
and personal property may be transferred by delivery, saving, how- 
ever, to the French and Canadian inhabitants, and other settlers of 
the Kaskaskies, Saint Vincents, and the neighboring villages, who 
have heretofore professed themselves citizens of Virginia, their laws 
and customs now in force among them, relative to the descent and 
conveyance of property. 

Section j. Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid. That there 
shall be appointed from time to time, by Congress, a governor, whose 
commission shall continue in force for the term of three years, unless 
sooner revoked by Congress; he shall reside in the district and have 
a freehold estate therein in one thousand acres of land, while in the 
exercise of his office. 

Section 4. There shall be appointed from time to time, by Con- 
gress, a secretary, whose commission shall continue in force for four 
years, unless sooner revoked; he shall reside in the district and 
have a freehold estate therein in five hundred acres of land, while in 
the exercise of his office. It shall be his duty to keep and preserve 
the acts and laws passed by the legislature, and the public records of 
the district, and the proceedings of the governor in his executive 
department, and transmit authentic copies of such acts and pro- 
ceedings every six months to the Secretary of Congress. There 
shall also be appointed a court, to consist of three judges, any two 
of whom to form a court, who shall have a common-law jurisdiction, 
and reside in the district, and have each therein a freehold estate 
in five hundred acres of land, while in the exercise of their offices; 
and their commissions shall continue in force during good behavior. 

Section 5. The governor and judges, or a majority of them, shall 



Northwest Ordinance 85 

adopt and publish in the district such laws of the original states, 
criminal and civil, as may be necessary and best suited to the cir- 
cumstances of the district, and report them to Congress from time 
to time, which laws shall be in force in the district until the organi- 
zation of the general assembly therein, unless disapproved of by 
Congress; but afterwards the legislature shall have authority to 
alter them as they shall think fit. 

Section 6. The governor, for the time being, shall be commander- 
in-chief of the militia, appoint and commission all officers in the same 
' below the rank of general officers; all general officers shall be ap- 
; pointed and commissioned by Congress. 

Section 7. Previous to the organization of the general assembly, 
the governor shall appoint such magistrates and other civil officers, 
in each county or township, as he shall find necessary for the pres- 
ervation of the peace and good order in the same. After the general 
assembly shall be organized, the powers and duties of magistrates 
I and other civil officers shall be regulated and defined by the said 
j assembly; but all magistrates and other civil officers, not herein 
otherwise directed, shall, during the continuance of this temporary 
\ government, be appointed by the governor. 

I Section 8. For the prevention of crimes and injuries, the laws 
1 to be adopted or made shall have force in all parts of the district; 
I and for the execution of process, criminal and civil, the governor 
I shall make proper divisions thereof; and he shall proceed ^^from 
time to time, as circumstances m*ay require, to lay out the parts of 
I the district in which the Indian titles shall have been extinguished, 
! into counties and townships, subject, however, to such alterations 
] as may thereafter be made by the legislature. 

I Section p.. So soon as there shall be five thousand free male in- 
1 habitants, of full age, in the district, upon giving proof thereof to 
I the governor, they shall receive authority, with time and place, 
! to elect representatives from their counties or townships to repre- 
! sent them in the general assembly: provided that for every five 
hundred free male inhabitants there shal] be one representative, and 
I so on, progressively, with the number of free male inhabitants, shall 
I the right of representation increase, until the number of representa- 
tives shall amount to twenty-five; after which the number and pro- 
1 portion of representatives shall be regulated by the legislature: 
provided that no person be eligible or qualified to act as a repre- 
sentative, unless he shall have been a citizen of one of the United 



86 Historical Source Book 

States three years, and be a resident in the district, or unless he shall 
have res'ded in the district three years; and, in either case, shall 
likewise hold in his own right, in fee-simple, two hundred acres of 
land within the same: provided also that a freehold in fifty acres of 
land in the district, having been a citizen of one of the states, and 
being resident in the district, or the like freehold and two years' 
residence in the district, shall be necessary to qualify a man as an 
elector of a representative. 

Section lo. The representatives thus elected shall serve for the 
term of two years; and in case of the death of a representative, or 
removal from office, the governor shall issue a writ to the county 
or township for which he was a member, to elect another in his 
stead to serve for the residue of the term. 

Section ii. The general assembly, or legislature, shall consist of 
the governor, legislative council, and a house of representatives. 
The legislative council shall consist of five members, to continue in 
ofhce five years, unless sooner removed by Congress; any three of 
whom to be a quorum; and the members of the council shall be 
nominated and appointed in the following manner, to wit: As soon 
as representatives shall be elected, the governor shall appoint a 
time and place for them to meet together, and when met they shall 
nominate ten persons, residents in the district, and each possessed 
of a freehold in five hundred acres of land, and return their names 
to Congress, five of whom Congress shall appoint and commission 
to serve as aforesaid: and whenever a vacancy shall happen in the 
council, by death or removal from office, the house of representatives 
shall nominate two persons, qualified as aforesaid, for each vacancy, 
and return their names to Congress, one of whom Congress shall 
appoint and commission for the residue of the term; and every five 
years, four months at least before the expiration of the time of service 
of the members of [the] council, the said house shall nominate ten per- 
sons, qualified as aforesaid, and return their names to Congress, five of 
whom Congress shall appoint and commission to serve as members 
of the council five years, unless sooner removed. And the governor, 
legislative council, and house of representatives shall have authority 
to make laws in all cases for the good government of the district, 
not repugnant to the principles and articles in this ordinance estab- 
Hshed and declared. And all bills, having passed by a majority 
in the house and by a majority in the council, shall be referred to 
the governor for his assent; but no bill, or legislative act whatever, 



Northwest Ordinance 87 

shall be of any force without his assent. The governor shall have 
pov/er to convene, prorogue, and dissolve the general assembly when, 
in his opinion, it shall be expedient. 

Section 12. The governor, judges, legislative council, secretary, 
and such other officers as Congress shall appoint in the district, shall 
take an oath or affirmation of fideHty, and of office; the governor before 
the president of Congress, and all other officers before the governor. 
As soon as a legislature shall be formed in the district, the council 
and house assembled, in one room, shall have authority, by joint 
ballot, to elect a delegate to Congress, who shall have a seat in Con- 
gress, with a right of debating, but not of voting, during this tempo- 
rary government. 

Section ij. And for extending the fundamental principles of 
civil and religious liberty, which form the basis whereon these re- 
publics, their laws and constitutions, are erected; to fix and es- 
tablish those principles as the basis of all laws, constitutions, and 
governments, which forever hereafter shall be formed in the said 
territory; to provide, also, for the establishment of states, and 
permanent government therein, and for their admission to a share 
in the federal councils on an equal footing with the original states, 
at as early periods as may be consistent with the general interest: 

Section 14, It is hereby ordained and declared, by the authority 
aforesaid, that the following articles shall be considered as articles 
of compact between the original states and the people and states 
in the said territory, and forever remain unalterable, unless by com- 
mon consent, to wit: 

Article I 

No person, demeaning himself in a peaceable and orderly manner, 
shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship, or religious 
sentiments, in the said territories. 

Article II 

The inhabitants of the said territory shall always be entitled to 
the benefits of the writ of habeas corpus and of the trial by jury; of 
a proportionate representation of the people in the legislature; and 
of judicial proceedings according to the course of common law. All 
persons shall be bailable, unless for capital offenses where the proof 
shall be evident or the presumption great. All fines shall be moder- 
ate; and no cruel or unusual punishments shall be inflicted. No 



88 Historical Source Book 

man shall be deprived of his liberty or property, but by the judgment 
of his peers or the law of the land; and should the public exigencies 
make it necessary, for the common preservation, to take any person's 
property or to demand his particular services, full compensation 
shall be made for the same. And, in the just preservation of rights 
and property, it is understood and declared that no law ought ever 
to be made or have force in the said territory that shall, in any 
manner whatever, interfere with or affect private contracts or en- 
gagements, bona fide, and without fraud previously formed. 

Article III 

Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessar}^ to good gov- 
ernment and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of 
education shall forever be encouraged. The utmost good faith shall 
always be observed toward the Indians; their lands and prop- 
erty shall never be taken from them without their consent; and in 
their property, rights, and liberty they never shall be invaded or 
disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress; 
but laws founded in justice and humanity shall, from time to time, 
be made for preventing wrongs being done to them, and for pre- 
serving peace and friendship with them. 

Article IV 

The said territory, and the states which may be formed therein, 
shall forever remain a part of this confederacy of the United States 
of America, subject to the Articles of Confederation and to such 
alterations therein as shall be constitutionally made; and to all the 
acts and ordinances of the United States in Congress assembled, 
conformable thereto. The inhabitants and settlers in the said ter- 
ritory shall be subject to pay a part of the federal debts, contracted 
or to be contracted, and a proportional part of the expenses of 
government to be apportioned on them by Congress, according to 
the same common rule and measure by which apportionments thereof 
shall be made on the other states; and the taxes for paying their 
proportion shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction 
of the legislatures of the district, or districts, or new states, as in the 
original states, within the time agreed upon by the United States 
in Congress assembled. The legislatures of those districts, or new 
states, shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the soil 



Northwest Ordinance 89 

by the United States in Congress assembled, nor with any regula- 
tions Congress may find necessary for securing the title in such soil 
to the hona-fide purchasers. No tax shall be imposed on lands the 
property of the United States; and in no cases shall non-resident 
proprietors be taxed higher than residents. The navigable waters 
leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and the carrying places 
between" the same, shall be common highways, and forever free, as 
well to the inhabitants of the said territory as to the citizens of the 
United States, and those of any other states that may be admitted 
into the confederacy, without any tax, impost, or duty therefor. 

Article V 

There shall be formed in the said territory not less than three 
nor more than five states; and the boundaries of the states, as soon 
as Virginia shall alter her act of cession and consent to the same, 
shall become fixed and established as follows, to wit: The western 
state, in the said territory, shall be bounded by the Mississippi, the 
Ohio, and the Wabash Rivers; a direct line drawn from the Wabash 
and Post Vincents, due north, to the territorial hne between the 
United States and Canada; and by the said territorial line to the 
Lake of the Woods and Mississippi. The middle state shall be 
bounded by the said direct line, the Wabash from Post Vincents to 
the Ohio, by the Ohio, by a direct line drawn due north from the 
mouth of the Great ]\Iiami to the said territorial line, and by the said 
territorial line. The eastern state shall be bounded by the last- 
mentioned direct line, the Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the said ter- 
ritorial line: provided however, and it is further understood and 
declared, that the boundaries of these three states shall be subject so 
far to be altered that, if Congress shall hereafter find it expedient, 
they shall have authority to form one or two states in that part of 
the said territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn 
through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan. And 
whenever any of the said states shall have sixty thousand free in- 
habitants therein, such state shall be admitted, by its delegates, 
into the Congress of the United States on an equal footing with the 
original states, in all respects whatever; and shall be at hberty to 
form a permanent constitution and state government: provided, 
the constitution and government, so to be formed, shall be republi- 
can and in conformity to the principles contained in these articles; 
and, so far as it can be consistent with the general interest of the 



go Historical Source Book 

confederacy, such admission shall be allowed at an earlier period, 
and when there may be a less number of free inhabitants in the state 
than sixty thousand. 

Article VI 

There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the 
said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof 
the party shall have been duly convicted: provided always, that 
any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is 
lawfully claimed in any of the original states, such fugitive may be 
lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her 
labor or service as aforesaid. 

Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That the resolutions 

of the 23d of April, 1784, relative to the subject of this ordinance, be, 

and the same are hereby repealed, and declared null and void. 

Done by the United States, in Congress assembled, the 13th day 

of July, in the year of our Lord 1787, and of their sovereignty 

and independence the twelfth. 



15. CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, 1787 ^ 

The dissatisfaction felt with the Articles of Confederation 
and the failure of all attempts to amend them by state action 
resulted in the meeting of the Constitutional Convention at 
Philadelphia, May 25, 1787. All the states except Rhode 
Island were represented. The fifty-five delegates included 
Washington, who presided, Frankhn, Madison, Hamilton, 
Dickinson, and many other distinguished men. The conven- 
tion met daily, in secret sessions, during the next four months. 
Instead of merely revising the Articles of Confederation, as 
had been authorized by Congress, the convention decided to 
prepare an entirely new constitution. When completed, it 
was signed on September 17, by all but three of the members 
present. It was then transmitted by Congress to the several 
states, in order to be ratified by conventions of delegates chosen 
in each state by a popular vote. By June 21, 1788, nine states 
had ratified the Constitution, thus bringing it (in accordance 
with Article VII) into operation. Virginia and New York 
ratified it a few days later. North Carolina and Rhode Island 
did not ratif}^ it until after the inauguration of Washington 
as President in March, 1789. In order to meet the objections 
of those opponents of the Constitution as originally framed, 
ten amendments, stating clearly the rights of the people, were 
drawn up by the first Congress under the Constitution, promptly 
ratified by the states, and declared in force in November, 1791. 

Constitution of the United States, 1787 

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect 
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for 
the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure 
the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain 
and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. 

1 Revised Statutes of the Uniied States, pp. 17-^2. Second Edition. Washington, 
1878. 

91 



92 Historical Source Book 

Article I 

Section i. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested 
in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate 
and House of Representatives. 

Section 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of 
members chosen every second year by the people of the several states, 
and the electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite 
for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislature. 

No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained 
to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen ot 
the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant 
of that state in which he shall be chosen. 

[Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among 
the several states which may be included within this union, accord- 
ing to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding 
to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service 
for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all 
other personsl-^ The actual enumeration shall be made within 
three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United 
States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner 
as they shall by law direct. The number of representatives shall 
not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state shall have 
at least one representative; and until such enumeration shall be 
made, the state of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, 
Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, 
Connecticut five. New York six. New Jersey four, Pennsylvania 
eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina 
five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three. 

When vacancies happen in the representation from any state, the ex- 
ecutive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. 

The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and 
other officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment. 

Section j. [The Senate of the United States shall be composed 
of two senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof, 
for six years; and each senator shall have one vote. J ^ 

^ The clause included in brackets is amended by the Fourteenth Amendment, 
second section. 

2 The first paragraph of section three of Article I and so much of paragraph 
two of the same section as relates to filling vacancies are amended by the Seven- 
teenth Amendment. 



Constitution of the United States 93 

Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of 
the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into 
three classes. The seats of the senators of the first class shall be 
vacated at the expiration of the second year, of the second class at 
the expiration of the fourth year, and of the third class at the ex- 
piration of the sixth year, so that one-third may be chosen every 
second year; and if vacancies happen by resignation, or otherwise, 
during the recess of the legislature of any state, the executive thereof 
may make temporary appointments [until the next meeting of the 
legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies. 

No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the 
age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United 
States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that 
state for which he shall be chosen. 

The Vice President of the United States shall be president of 
the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 

The Senate shall choose their other ofiicers, and also a president 
pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice President, or when he shall 
exercise the office of President of the United States. 

The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. 
When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. 
When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice 
shall preside: and no person shall be convicted without the con- 
currence of two-thirds of the members present. 

Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than 
to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any 
office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States: but the 
party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indict- 
ment, trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law. 

Section 4, The times, places, and manner of holding elections for 
senators and representatives shall be prescribed in each state by the 
legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make 
or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators. 

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and 
such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they 
shall by law appoint a different day. 

Section 5. Each house shall be the judge of the elections, returns, 
and qualifications of its owm members, and a majority of each shall 
constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may ad- 
journ from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attend- 



94 Historical Source Book 

ance of absent members, in such manner and under such penalties 
as each house may provide. 

Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish 
its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of 
two-thirds, expel a member. 

Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time 
to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judg- 
ment require secrecy; and the nays and yeas of the members of 
either house on any question shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those 
present, be entered on the journal. 

Neither house, during the session of Congress, shall, without the 
consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any 
other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting. 

Section 6. The senators and representatives shall receive a com- 
pensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out 
of the treasury of the United States. They shall in all cases, except 
treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest 
during their attendance at the session of their respective houses, 
and in going to and returning from the same; and for any speech or 
debate in either house they shall not be questioned in any other 
place. 

No senator or representative shall, during the time for which he 
was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of 
the United States, which shall have been created, or the emolu- 
ments whereof shall have been increased, during such time; and no 
person holding any office under the United States shall be a member 
of either house during his continuance in office. 

Section 7. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the 
House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur 
with amendments as on other bills. 

Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives 
and the Senate shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the 
President of the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if 
not he shall return it, with his objections, to that house in which it 
shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their 
journal and proceed to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration 
two-thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, 
together with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall 
likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two-thirds of that 
house it shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes of both 



Constitution of the United States 95 

houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the 
persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal 
of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the 
President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been 
presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he 
had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its 
return, in which case it shall not be a law. 

Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the 
Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on 
a question of adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the 
United States; and before the same shall take effect shall be approved 
by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two- 
thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the 
rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill. 

Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect 
taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for 
the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but 
all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the 
United States; 

To borrow money on the credit of the United States; 

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the 
several states, and with the Indian tribes; 

To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws 
on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States; 

To coin money, regulate the value thereof and of foreign coin, 
and fix the standard of weights and measures; 

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities 
and current coin of the United States; 

To establish post offices and post roads; 

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing 
for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their 
respective writings and discoveries; 

To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court; 

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the 
high seas, and offenses against the law of nations; 

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make 
rules concerning captures on land and water 

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to 
that use shall be for a longer term than two years; 

To provide and maintain a navy; 



96 Historical Source Book 

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and 
naval forces; 

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of 
the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions; 

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, 
and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the 
service of the United States, reserving to the states, respectively, the 
appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia 
according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; 

To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over 
such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of 
particular states and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat 
of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority 
over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state 
in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, 
arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings; — And 

To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carry- 
ing into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested 
by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in 
any department or officer thereof. 

Section 9. The migration or importation of such persons as any 
of the states now existing shall think proper to admit shall not be 
prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight 
hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such im- 
portation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person. 

The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, 
unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the pubUc safety may 
require it. 

No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed. 

No capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in pro- 
portion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be 
taken.^ 

No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state. 

No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or 
revenue to the ports of one state over those of another; nor shall 
vessels bound to, or from, one state be obHged to enter, clear, or pay 
duties in another. 

No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence 
of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account 
' See the Sixteenth Amendment. 



Constitution of the United States 97 

of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be pub- 
lished from tim.e to time. 

No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: and no 
person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the 
consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, 
or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state. 

Section 10. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or 
confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; 
emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender 
in payments of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, 
or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of 
nobihty. 

No state shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any im- 
posts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely 
necessary for executing its inspection laws: and the net produce 
of all duties and imposts, laid by any state on imports or exports, 
shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States; and all such 
laws shall be subject to the revision and control of the Congress. 

No state shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of 
tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, enter into 
any agreement or compact with another state, or with a foreign 
power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent 
danger as will not admit of delay. 

Article II 

Section i. The executive power shall be vested in a President of 
the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the 
term of four years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen 
for the same term, be elected as follows: 

Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof 
may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of sena- 
tors and representatives to which the state may be entitled in the 
Congress; but no senator or representative, or person holding an 
office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed 
an elector. 

[The electors shall meet in- their respective states and vote 
by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an in- 
habitant of the same state with themselves. And they shall make a 
list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each; 
which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat 



98 Historical Source Book 

of the government of the United States, directed to the president 
of the Senate. The president of the Senate shall, in the presence of 
the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, 
and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest 
number of votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority 
of the whole number of electors appointed; and if there be more than 
one who have such majority and have an equal number of votes, 
then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by 
ballot one of them for President; and if no person have a majority, 
then from the five highest on the hst the said house shall in like 
manner choose the President. But in choosing the President the 
votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state 
having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member 
or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the 
states shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice 
of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes 
of the electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should re- 
main two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose 
from them by ballot the Vice President].^ 

The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, 
and the day on which they shall give their votes; which day shall 
be the same throughout the United States. 

No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United 
States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligi- 
ble to the ofiice of President; neither shall any person be eligible to 
that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, 
and been fourteen years a resident within the United States. 

In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, 
resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the 
said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the 
Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resigna- 
tion, or inabihty, both of the President and Vice President, declar- 
ing what officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall 
act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall 
be elected. 

The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a 
compensation which shall neither be increased nor diminished dur- 
ing the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not 

1 The clause included in brackets has been superseded by the Twelfth Amend- 
ment. 



Constitution of the United States 99 

receive within that period any other emolument from the United 
States, or any of them. 

Before he enters on the execution of his office, he shall take the 
following oath or affirmation: — "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) 
that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United 
States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and de- 
fend the Constitution of the United States." 

Section 2. The President shall be commander-in-chief of the army 
and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, 
when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require 
the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive 
departments upon any subject relating to the duties of their respec- 
tive offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for 
offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. 

He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the senators present 
concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and 
consent of the Senate shall appoint, ambassadors, other public min- 
isters and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers 
of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise 
provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress 
may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers as they 
think proper in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the 
heads of departments. 

The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may 
happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions 
which shall expire at the end of their next session. 

Section j. He shall from time to time give to the Congress infor- 
mation of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration 
such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on 
extraordinary occasions, convene both houses, or either of them, and 
in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of 
adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think 
proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; 
he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall 
commission all the officers of the United States. 

Section 4. The President, Vice President, and all civil officers 
of the United States shall be removed from office on impeachment 
for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and 
misdemeanors. 



loo Historical Source Book 

Article III 

Section i. The judicial power of the United States shall be 
vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Con- 
gress may from time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both 
of the supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their office during good 
behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services a com- 
pensation which shall not be diminished during their continuance 
in office. 

Section 2. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law 
and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United 
States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their author- 
ity; to all cases afifecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and 
consuls; to all cases of admirality and maritime jurisdiction; to 
controversies to which the United States shall be a party; to con- 
troversies between two or more states; ^ between a state and citizens 
of another state; between citizens of different states; between citi- 
zens of the same state claiming lands under grants of different states; 
. and between a state, or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citi- 
zens, or subjects. 

In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and 
consuls, and those in which a state shall be a party, the Supreme 
Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before 
mentioned the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both 
as to law and fact, with such exceptions and under such regulations 
as the Congress shall make. 

The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be 
by jury; and such trial shall be held in the state where the said crimes 
shall have been committed; but when not committed within any 
state, the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may 
by law have directed. 

Section 3. Treason against the United States shall consist only 
in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving 
them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless 
on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on con- 
fession in open court. 

The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of 
treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, 
or forfeiture except during the life of the person attained. 

1 Limited by the Eleventh Amendment. 



Constitution of the United States loi 

Article IV 

Section i. Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to 
the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. 
And the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which 
such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect 
thereof. 

Section 2, The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privi- 
leges and immunities of citizens in the several states. 

A person charged in any state with treason, felony, or other crime, 
v/ho shall flee from justice and be found in another state, shall, on 
demand of the executive authority of the state from which he fled, 
be delivered up to be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the 
crime. 

[No person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws 
thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or 
regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but 
shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or 
labor may be due].^ 

Section 3. New states may be admitted by the Congress into this 
Union; but no new state shall be formed or erected within the juris- 
diction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction 
of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the 
legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress. 

The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful 
rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property 
belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall 
be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or 
of any particular state. 

Section 4. The United States shall guarantee to every state in 
this Union a repubHcan form of government, and shall protect each 
of them against invasion; and on appHcation of the legislature, or 
of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against 
domestic violence. 

Article V 

The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it 

necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the 

application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states, 

shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either 

1 Superseded by the Thirteenth Amendment. 



I02 Historical Source Book 

case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of this Consti- 
tution, when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several 
states, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or 
the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; 
provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year 
one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect 
the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; 
and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal 
suffrage in the Senate. 

Article VI 

All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the 
adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United 
States under this Constitution as under the confederation. 

This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall 
be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall 
be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the su- 
preme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound 
thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the con- 
trary notwithstanding. 

The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the 
members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judi- 
cial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall 
be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution; but 
no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office 
or public trust under the United States. 

Article VII 

The ratification of the conventions of nine states shall be sufficient 
for the establishment of this Constitution between the states so rati- 
fying the same. 

Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the states present 
the seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thou- 
sand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the independence of the 
United States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof we have 
hereunto subscribed our names.^ 



Here follow the names of George Washington and the thirty-eight other dele- 
gates from the various states who signed the Constitution. 



Constitution of the United States 103 

Articles in Addition to, and Amendment of, the Constitution 

Article I 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of re- 
ligion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the 
freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peace- 
ably to assem^ble and to petition the government for a redress of 
grievances. 

Aeticle II 

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free 
state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be 
infringed. 

Article III 

No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house, with- 
out the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner 
to be prescribed by law. 

Article IV 

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, 
papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall 
not be violated; and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, 
supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the 
place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized. 

Article V 

No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise in- 
famous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand 
jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the 
mihtia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; 
nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put 
in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal 
case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, 
or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property 
be taken for public use without just compensation. 

Article VI 

In all crim.inal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to 
a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and dis- 
trict wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district 



104 Historical Source Book 

shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of 
the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the 
witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining wit- 
nesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his 

defense. 

Article VII 

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall 
exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved; 
and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in any court 
of the United States than according to the rules of the common law. 

Article VIII 

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, 
nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 

Article IX 

The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not 
be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. 

Article X 

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitu- 
tion, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states 
respectively, or to the people. 



rr 1 



Article XI 

The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed 
to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted 
against one of the United States by citizens of another state, or by 
citizens or subjects of any foreign state. 

Article XII ^ 

The electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by 
ballot for President and Vice President, one of whom, at least, shall 
not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall 
name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct 
ballots the person voted for as \'ice President, and they shall make 

1 Proposed, March 5, 1794; declared in force, January 8, 1798. 

2 Proposed, December 12, 1803; declared in force, September 25, 1804. 



Constitution of the United States 105 

distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons 
voted for as Vice President, and of the number of votes for each, 
which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the 
seat of the government of the United States, directed to the presi- 
dent of the Senate. The president of the Senate shall, in the presence 
of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certifi- 
cates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the 
greatest number of votes for President shall be the President, if such 
number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; 
and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having 
the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted 
for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose imme- 
diately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President 
the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each 
state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a 
member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority 
of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of 
Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of 
choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next 
following, then the Vice President shall act as President, as in the 
case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. 
The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice President 
shall be the Vice President, if such number be a majority of the 
whole number of electors appointed, and if no person have a ma- 
jority, then from the two highest numbers on the list the Senate 
shall choose the Vice President; a quorum for the purpose shall 
consist of two-thirds of the whole number of senators, and a ma- 
jority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no 
person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be 
eligible to that of Vice President of the United States. 

Article XHI^ 

Section i. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as 
a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly con- 
victed, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to 
their jurisdiction. 

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by 
appropriate legislation. 

1 Proposed, February i, 1865; declared in force, December 18, 1865. 



io6 Historical Source Book 

Article XIV ^ 

Section I. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, 
and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United 
States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or 
enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of 
citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person 
of hfe, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny 
to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the 
several states according to their respective numbers, counting the 
whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. 
But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors 
for President and Vice President of the United States, representa- 
tives in Congress, the executive and judicial ofiticers of a state, or 
the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male 
inhabitants of such states, being twenty-one years of age and citizens 
of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation 
in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall 
be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens 
shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years 
of age in such state. 

Section 3. No person shall be a senator or representative in Con- 
gress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any ofhce, 
civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, 
having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an 
officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, 
or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Con- 
stitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or 
rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies 
thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, 
remove such disability. 

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, 
authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions 
and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall 
not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state 
shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insur- 
rection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the 
loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations, 
and claims shall be held illegal and void. 

1 Proposed June 16, 1866; declared in force, July 28, 1868. 



Constitution of the United States 107 

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appro- 
priate legislation, the provisions of this article. 

Article XV ^ 

Section i. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall 
not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any state, on 
account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article 
by appropriate legislation. 

Article XVI 2 

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on in- 
comes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among 
the several states and without regard to any census or enumeration. 

Article XVII ^ 

Section i. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of 
two senators from each state, elected by the people thereof, for six 
years; and each senator shall have one vote. The electors in each 
state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most 
numerous branch of the state legislatures. 

Section 2. When vacancies happen in the representation of any 
state in the Senate, the executive authority of such state shall issue 
writs of election to fill such vacancies: provided, that the legislature 
of any state may empower the executive thereof to make temporary 
appointment until the people fill the vacancies by election as the 
legislature may direct. 

Section j. This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect 
the election or term of any senator chosen before it becomes vahd as 
part of the Constitution. 

Article XVIII * 

Section i. After one year from the ratification of this article the 
manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating Hquors within, 
the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the 
United States and all territories subject to the jurisdiction thereof 
for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. 

1 Proposed, February 27, i86g; declared in force, March 30, 1870. 

2 Proposed, July 12, igog; declared in force, February 25, 19 13. 

3 Proposed, May 16, 1912; declared in force. May 31, 1913. 

- Proposed, December 18, 191 7; declared in force, January 16, 1920. 



io8 Historical Source Book 

Section 2. The Congress and the several states shall have con- 
current power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 

Section j. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have 
been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures 
of the several states, as provided in the Constitution, within seven 
years from the date of the submission hereof to the states by the 
Congress. 

Article XIX ^ 

Section I. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall 
not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any state, on 
account of sex. 

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article 
by appropriate legislation. 

1 Proposed, June 4, igig; declared in force, August 26, 1920. 



16. DECREE ABOLISHING THE FEUDAL SYSTEM, 1789 i 

The National Assembly, at its famous night session of 
August 4-5, 1789, passed a large number of measures sup- 
pressing the special privileges of classes, cities, and provinces 
under the Old Regime. Within the following week all these 
measures were brought together into a single decree, which 
received the signature of Louis XVI. The decree did little 
more than register accomplished facts. Feudalism had already 
fallen, in consequence of the revolutionary movements through- 
out France; it was now legally abolished by the representatives 
of the nation. ^^ 

Decree Abolishing the Feudal System, 1789 

I. The National Assembly hereby completely abolishes the feudal 
system. It decrees that, in the case of rights and dues, both feudal 
and censuel,'^ all those originating in real or personal serfdom or per- 
sonal servitude, as well as the rights and dues representing them, 
shall be abolished without indemnification. All other dues are de- 
clared redeemable, the terms and mode of redemption to be fixed 
by the National Assembly. Those of the said dues which are not 
extinguished by this decree shall continue to be collected until in- 
demnification shall take place. 

II. The exclusive right to maintain pigeon-houses and dove-cotes 
is abolished. The pigeons shall be confined during the seasons fixed 
by the community. During such periods they shall be looked upon 
as game, and every one shall have the right to kill them upon his 
own land. 

III. The exclusive right to hunt and to maintain uninclosed 
warrens is likewise abolished, and every land owner shall have the 
right to kill or to have destroyed on his own land all kinds of game, 
observing, however, such police regulations as may be established 
with a view to the safety of the public. 

1 Translations and Reprints, vol. i, No. 5, pp. 2-5. 

2 A reference to the perpetual due known as the cens. 

109 



no Historical Source Book 

AW hunting captainries, including the royal forests, and all hunt- 
ing rights under whatever denomination, are likewise aboHshed. 
Provision shall be made, in a manner compatible with the regard 
due to property and liberty, for maintaining the personal pleasures 
of the king. 

The president of the .\ssembly shall be commissioned to ask of 
the king the recall of those sent to the galleys or exiled, simply for 
violation of the hunting regulations, as well as for the release of 
those at present imprisoned for offenses of this kind and the dismissal 
of such cases as now are pending. 

IV. All manorial courts are hereby suppressed without indemni- 
fication. But the magistrates of these courts shall continue to per- 
form their functions until such time as the National Assembly shall 
provide for the estabHshment of a new judicial system. 

V. Tithes of every description, as well as the dues which have 
been substituted for them, under whatever denomination they are 
known or collected (even when compounded for), possessed by 
secular or regular congregations, by holders of benefices, members 
of corporations, including the Order of Malta and other religious and 
military orders, as well as those devoted to the maintenance of 
churches, those impropriated to lay persons and those substituted for 
the portion congriie,^ are abolished, on condition, however, that 
some other method be devised to provide for the expenses of divine 
worship, the support of the officiating clergy, for the assistance of 
the poor, for repairs and rebuilding of churches and parsonages, and 
for the maintenance of all institutions, seminaries, schools, academies, 
asylums, and organizations to which the present funds are devoted. 
Until such provision shall take place and the former possessors shall 
enter upon the enjoyment of an income on the new system, the 
National Assembly decrees that the said tithes shall continue to be 
collected according to law and in the customar>' manner. 

Other tithes, of whatever nature they may be, shall be redeem- 
able in such manner as the Assembly shall determine. Until such 
regulations shall be Issued, the National Assembly decrees that 
these, too, shall continue to be collected. 

VI. All perpetual ground rents, payable either in money or in 
kind, of whatever nature they may be, whatever their origin and 
to whomsoever thay may be due, as to members of corporations, 
holders of the domain or of appanages, or to the Order of Malta, 

1 This refers to the mmimuin remuneration fixed for the priests. 



Decree Abolishing the Feudal System iii 

shall be redeemable. Champarts^ of every kind and under all de- 
nominations shall likewise be redeemable at a rate fixed by the 
Assembly. No due shall in the future be created which is not 
redeemable. 

VII. The sale of judicial and municipal offices shall be suppressed 
forthwith. Justice shall be dispensed gratis. Nevertheless, the 
magistrates at present holding such offices shall continue to exercise 
their functions and to receive their emoluments, until the Assembly 
shall have made provision for indemnifying them. 

Vm. The fees of the country priests are abolished, and shall be 
discontinued so soon as provision shall be made for increasing the 
minimum salary of the parish priests and the payment to the curates. 
A regulation shall be drawn up to determine the status of the priests 
in the towns. 

IX. Pecuniary privileges, personal or real, in the payment of 
taxes are abolished forever. Taxes shall be collected from all the 
citizens, and from all property, in the same manner and in the same 
form. Plans' shall be considered by which the taxes shall be paid 
proportionally by all, even for the last six months of the current 
year. 

X. Inasmuch as a national constitution and public liberty are 
of more advantage to the provinces than the privileges which some 
of these enjoy, and inasmuch as the surrender of such privileges is 
essential to the intimate union of all parts of the realm, it is decreed 
that all the peculiar privileges, pecuniary or otherwise, of the prov- 
inces, principalities, districts, cantons, cities, and communes are 
once for all abolished and are absorbed into the law common to all 
Frenchmen. 

XL All citizens, without distinction of birth, are ehgible to any 
office or dignity, whether ecclesiastical, civil, or mihtary, and no 
profession shall imply any derogation. 

XII. Plereafter no remittances shall be made for annates or for 
any other purpose to the court of Rome, the vice-legation at Avi- 
gnon, or to the nunciature at Lucerne. The clergy of the diocese 
shall apply to their bishops in regard to the filling of benefices and 
dispensations, the which shall be granted gratis without regard to 
reservations, expectancies, and papal months, all the churches of 
France enjoying the same freedom. 

^ The champart was the lord's right to a certain portion of the crops on lands 
subject to the cens. 



112 Historical Source Book 

XIII. The rights of deport,^ of cotte-morte,'^ depouilles,^ vacat} 
droits censaux, Peter's pence, and other dues of the same kind, under 
whatever denomination, estabhshed in favor of bishops, arch-deacons, 
arch-presbyters, chapters, and regular congregations which formerly 
exercised priestly functions, are abolished, but appropriate provision 
shall be made for those benefices of arch-deacons and arch-presby- 
ters which are not sufficiently endowed. 

XIV. Pluralities shall not be permitted hereafter in cases where 
the revenue from the benefice or benefices held shall exceed the sum 
of three thousand livres. Nor shall any individual be allowed to 
enjoy several pensions from benefices, or a pension and a benefice, 
if the revenue which he already enjoys from such sources exceeds the 
same sum of three thousand livres. 

XV. The National Assembly shall consider, in conjunction 
with the king, the report w^hich is to be submitted to it relating to 
pensions, favors, and salaries, with a view to suppressing all such 
as are not deserved and reducing those which shall prove excessive, 
and the amount shall be fixed which the king may in the future dis- 
burse for this purpose. 

X\T. The National Assembly decrees that a m.edal shall be 
struck in memory of the recent grave and important deliberations 
for the welfare of France, and that a Te Deum shall be chanted in 
gratitude in all the parishes and the churches of France. 

XVII. The National Assembly solemnly proclaims the king, 
Louis XVI, the Restorer of French Liberty. 

XVIII. The National Assembly shall present itself in a body 
before the king, in order to submit to him the decrees which have 
just been passed, to tender to him the tokens of its most respectful 
gratitude, and to pray him to permit the Te Deum to be chanted in 
his chapel and to be present himself at this service. 

XIX. The National Assembly shall consider, immediately after 
the constitution, the drawing up of the laws necessary for the de- 
velopment of the principles which it has laid down in the present 
decree. The latter shall be transmitted without delay by the depu- 
ties to all the provinces, togther with the decree of the tenth of 
this month, in order that it may be printed, pubHshed, announced 
from parish pulpits, and posted up wherever it shall be deemed 
necessary. 

1 Rights of bishops to the income of benefices during vacancies. 

2 Rights of the convent to the clothes of its deceased members. 



17. DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN AND OF 
THE CITIZEN, 1789 ' 

After the legal abolition of the feudal system the National 
Assembly proceeded to draw up the celebrated Declaration of 
the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. It was obviously framed 
on the model of the bills of rights inserted in several of the 
American state constitutions, which had been translated into 
French. The Declaration was prefixed to the French Con- 
stitution of 1 791, and many of its clauses were subsequently 
reproduced in the constitutions framed in France and other 
Continental countries during the nineteenth century. 

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the 
Citizen, 1798 

The representatives of the French people, organized as a National 
Assembly, believing that the ignorance, neglect, or contempt 
of the rights of man are the sole causes of public calamities and 
of the corruption of governments, have determined to set forth 
in a solemn declaration the natural, inalienable, and sacred 
rights of man, in order that this declaration, being constantly 
before all the members of the social body, shall remind them 
continually of their rights and duties; in order that the acts of 
the legislative power, as well as those of the executive power, 
may be compared at any moment with the ends of all political 
institutions and may thus be more respected; and, lastly, in 
order that the grievances of the citizens, based hereafter upon 
simple and incontestable principles, shall tend to the mainte- 
nance of the constitution and redound to the happiness of all. 
Therefore the National Assembly recognizes and proclaims in 
the presence and under the auspices of the Supreme Being the 
following rights of man and of the citizen: 

I. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social 
distinctions may only be founded upon the general good. 

* Translations and Reprints, vol. i, No. 5, pp. 6-8. 
113 



114 Historical Source Book 

II. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the 
natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, 
property, security, and resistance to oppression. 

III. The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the 
nation. No body nor individual may exercise any authority which 
does not proceed directly from the nation. 

IV. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which 
injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each 
man has no limits except those which assure to the other members 
of the society the enjoyment of the same Irights. These limits can 
only be determined by law. 

V. Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to society. 
Nothing may be prevented which is not forbidden by law, and no 
one may be forced to do anything not provided for by law. 

VI. Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has 
a right to participate personally, or through his representative, in its 
formation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or pun- 
ishes. All citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law, are equally 
eUgible to all dignities and to all public positions and occupations, 
according to their abilities and without distinction, except that of 
their virtues and talents. 

VII. No person shall be accused, arrested, or imprisoned except 
in the cases and according to the forms prescribed by law. Any one 
soliciting, transmitting, executing, or causing to be executed any 
arbitrary order shall be punished. But any citizen summoned or 
arrested in virtue of the law shall submit without delay, as resistance 
constitutes an offense. 

VIII. The law shall provide for such punishments only as are 
strictly and obviously necessary, and no one shall suffer punishment 
except it be legally inflicted in virtue of a law, passed and promul- 
gated before the commission of the offense. 

IX. As all persons are held innocent until they shall have been 
declared guilty, if arrest shall be deemed indispensable, all severity 
not essential to the securing of the prisoner's person shall be severely 
repressed by law. 

X. No one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions, includ- 
ing his religious views, provided their manifestation does not disturb 
the public order established by law. 

XL The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the 
most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, 



Declaration of the Rights of Man 115 

speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for 
such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law. 

XII. The security of the rights of man and of the citizen requires 
mihtary force. These forces are, therefore, established for the good 
of all and not for the personal advantage of those to whom they 
shall be intrusted. 

XIII. A common contribution is essential for the maintenance 
of the public forces and for the cost of administration. This should 
be equitably distributed among all the citizens in proportion to their 
means. 

XIV. All the citizens have a right to decide, either personally or 
by their representatives, as to the necessity of the pubhc contribu- 
tion; to grant this freely; to know to what uses it is put; and to fix 
the proportion, the mode of assessment and of collection, and the 
duration of the taxes. 

XV. Society has the right to require of every public agent an 
account of his administration. 

XVI. A society in which the observance of the law is not assured, 
nor the separation of powers defined, has no constitution at all. 

XVII. Since property is an inviolable and sacred right, no one 
shall be deprived thereof except where pubhc necessity, legally de- 
termined, shall clearly demand it, and then only on condition that 
the owner shall have been previously and equitably indemnified. 



18. ADDRESS TO ALL PEOPLES, 1792 ^ 

The conquest of the Austrian Netherlands by the revolu- 
tionary armies and the voluntary adhesion of Nice and Savoy 
to the French RepubKc filled the French with enthusiasm; they 
prepared to carry "Liberty, EquaHty, Fraternity" throughout 
Europe. The following decree, passed by the National Con- 
vention in December, 1792, was a direct challenge to auto- 
cratic rulers and privileged classes everywhere. Articles I, II, 
XI, and XII are of particular importance in this connection. 

Address to All Peoples, 1792 

The National Convention, after having heard the report of its united 
committees of finances, war, and diplomacy, faithful to the 
principles of the sovereignty of the people, which do not permit 
it to recognize any of the institutions that constitute an attack 
thereon, and wishing to settle the rules to be followed by the 
generals of the armies of the Republic in the countries where they 
shall carry its arms, decrees: 

I. In the. countries which are or shall be occupied by the armies 
of the Republic, the generals shall proclaim immediately, in the 
name of the French nation, the sovereignty of the people, the sup- 
pression of all the established authorities and of the existing imposts 
and taxes, the abolition of the tithe, of feudalism, of seignioral rights, 
both feudal and censuel, fixed or precarious, of banalites,^ of real and 
personal servitude, of the privileges of hunting and fishing, of cor- 
vees,^ of the nobility, and generally of all privileges. 

II. They shall announce to the people that they bring them 
peace, assistance, fraternity, liberty, and equality, and that they 
will convoke them directly in primary or communal assemblies, in 
order to create and organize an administration and a provisional 

1 F. M. Anderson, The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of 
the History of France, lySQ-igo^, pp. 130-133. Second Edition. Minneap)olis, 
1908. H. W. Wilson Company. 

2 Certain exclusive rights of a lord over mills, forests, fishing, etc. 

3 The corvee was the forced labor exacted of peasants on the highways. 

116 



Address to All Peoples 117 

judiciary; they shall look after the security of persons and property; 
they shall cause the present decree and the proclamation herewith 
annexed to be printed in the language or idiom of the country, and 
to be posted and executed without delay in each commune. 

III. All the agents and civil and miHtary officers of the former 
government, as well as the persons formerly reputed noble, or the 
members of any formerly privileged corporation, shall be, for this 
time only, inadmissable to vote in the primary or communal assem- 
bHes, and they shall not be elected to administrative positions or to 
the provisional judicial power. 

IV. The generals shall directly place under the safeguard and 
protection of the French RepubHc all the movable and immovable 
goods belonging to the public treasury, to the prince, to his abettors, 
adherents, and voluntary satellites, to the public establishments, to 
the lay and ecclesiastical bodies and communities; they shall cause 
to be prepared wthout delay a detailed list thereof, which they shall 
dispatch to the executive council, and shall take all the measures 
which are in their power that these properties may be respected. 

V. The provisional administration selected by the people shall 
be charged with the surveillance and control of the goods placed under 
the safeguard and protection of the French RepubHc; it shall look 
after the security of persons and property; it shall cause to be exe- 
cuted the laws in force relative to the trial of civil and criminal suits 
and to the police and the public security; it shall be charged to 
regulate and to cause the payment of the local expenses and those 
which shall be necessary for the common defense; it may establish 
taxes, pro\dded, however, that they shall not be borne by the indi- 
gent and laboring portion of the people. 

VI. When the pro\dsional administration shall be organized, 
the National Convention shall appoint commissioners from within 
its own body to go to fraternize with it. 

VII. The executive council shall also appoint national commis- 
sioners, who shall repair directly to the places in order to cooperate 
with the generals and the provisional administration selected by 
the people upon the measures to be taken for the common defense, 
and upon the means employed to procure the clothing and provis- 
ions necessary for the armies, and to meet the expenses which they 
have incurred and shall incur during their sojourn upon its territory. 

VIII. The national commissioners appointed by the executive 
council shall every fifteen days render an account to it of their opera- 



ii8 Historical Source Book 

tions. The executive council shall approve, modify, or reject them 
and shall render an account thereof directly to the Convention. 

IX. The provisional administration selected by the people and 
the functions of the national commissioners shall cease as soon as 
the inhabitants, after having declared the sovereignty and independ- 
ence of the people, Hberty, and equahty, shall have organized a 
free and popular form of government. 

X. There shall be made a list of the expenses which the French 
Republic shall have incurred for the common defense and of the 
sums which it may have received, and the French nation shall make 
arrangements with the government which shall have been estab- 
lished for that which may be due; and in case the common interest 
should require that the troops of the Republic remain beyond that 
time upon the foreign territory, it shall take suitable measures to 
provide for their subsistence. 

XI. The French nation declares that it will treat as enemies the 
people who, refusing liberty and equahty, or renouncing them, may 
wish to preserve, recall, or treat vdih the prince and the privileged 
castes; it promises and engages not to subscribe to any treaty, and 
not to lay down its arms, until after the estabHshment of the sover- 
eignty and independence of the people whose territory the troops of 
the Repubhc have entered upon, and who shall have adopted the 
principles of equahty and estabhshed a free and popular government. 

XII. The executive council shall dispatch the present decree by 
extraordinary couriers to all the generals and shall take the neces- 
sary measures to assure the execution of it. 

The French People to the . . . People 

Brothers and friends, we have conquered liberty and we shall 
maintain it. We offer to cause you to enjoy this inestimable blessing, 
which has always belonged to us and which our oppressors have not 
been able to take away from us mthout crime. 

We have driven out your tyrants: show yourselves free men and 
we will guarantee you from their vengeance, their projects, and 
their return. 

From this moment the French nation proclaims the sovereignty 
of the people, the suppression of all the civil and military authori- 
ties which have governed you up to this day, and of all the imposts 
which you support under whatever form they exist; the abolition 
of the tithe, of feudalism, of seignioral rights, both feudal and censuel, 



Address to All Peoples 119 

settled or precarious, of banalites, of real and personal servitude, of 
the privileges of hunting and fishing, of the corvees, of the gabelle,^ of 
the tolls, of the octrois,- and generally of every species of taxes with 
which you have been charged by your usurpers; it also proclaims 
the abolition among you of every noble corporation, sacerdotal and 
others, of all prerogatives and privileges contrary to equality. You 
are from this moment brothers and friends, all citizens, all equal in 
rights, and all equally called to govern, to serve, and to defend your 
fatherland. 

Form yourselves, immediately, into primary and communal as- 
sembHes, make haste to estabUsh your provisional administrations 
and judiciaries, in conformity with the provisions of Article III of the 
above decree. The agents of the French Republic will cooperate 
with you, in order to assure your welfare and the fraternity which 
ought to exist henceforth between us. 

1 The salt tax. 

2 Taxes levied on commodities, especially provisions, when brought into a 
town. 



19. WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS, 1796 i 

Washington planned to retire from public life at the close! 
of his first term of office. As early as 1792, accordingly, he 
asked James Madison to prepare for him a valedictory address 
to the American people. His acceptance of a second term led to 
Madison's draft being set aside for the next four years. Wash- 
ington then amplified it and sent it to Alexander Hamilton for 
revision. Hamilton, with the assistance of John Jay, prepared an 
entirely new draft, of which Washington made extensive use. 
The address thus embodies the ideas of three American states- 
men, besides those of its author. It w^as not intended for oral 
delivery, but was first published in a Philadelphia newspaper, 
the American Daily Advertiser, in its issue of September 19, 1796. 

Washington's Farewell Address, 1796 
Friends and Fellow Citizens 

I. The period for a new election of a citizen, to administer the 
executive government of the United States, being not far distant, 
and the time actually arrived, when your thoughts must be em- 
ployed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that im- 
portant trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce 
to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now 
apprise you of the resolution I have formed to decline being considered 
among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made. 

I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be assured 
that this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to 
all the considerations appertaining to the relation which binds a 1 
dutiful citizen to his country; and that, in withdrawing the tender I 
of service — which silence in my situation might imply — I am 
influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future interest, no defi- 
ciency of grateful respect for your past kindness; but am supported 
by a full conviction that the step is compatible with both. 

1 George Washington, Writings, vol. xiii, pp. 277-325. Edited by W. C. Ford. 
New York, 188Q-1893. G. P. Putnam's Sons. '^ 

120 



Washington's Farewell Address 121 

The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the office to 
which your suffrages have twice called me have been a uniform 
sacrifice of incHnation to the opinion of duty, and to a deference for 
what appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it would 
have been much earlier in my power, consistently with motives 
which I was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement 
from which I had been reluctantly drawn. The strength of my in- 
chnation to do this, previous to the last election, had even led to 
the preparation of an address to declare it to you; but mature re- 
flection on the then perplexed and critical posture of our affairs 
with foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of persons entitled 
to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea. 

I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external as well as in- 
ternal, no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incompatible with 
the sentiment of duty or propriety; and am persuaded, whatever 
partiality may be retained for my services, that in the present cir- 
cumstances of our country you will not disapprove my determina- 
tion to retire. 1 : 

The impressions, with which I first undertook the arduous trust, 
were explained on the proper occasion.^ In the discharge of this 
trust, I will only say that I have, with good intentions, contributed 
toward the organization and administration of the government the 
best exertions of which a very falhble judgment was capable. Not 
unconscious, in the outset, of the inferiority of my qualifications, 
experience in my ow'n eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, 
has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself; and every 
day the increasing w-eight of years admonishes me more and more 
that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be wel- 
come. Satisfied that, if any circumstances have given pecuhar value 
to my services, they were temporary, I have the consolation to 
believe that, w'hile choice and prudence invite me to quit the pohtical 
scene, patriotism does not forbid it. 

In looking forw^ard to the moment which is intended to terminate 
the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend 
the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude, which I owe to 
my beloved country, for the many honors it has conferred upon 
me; still more for the steadfast confidence with w^hich it has sup- 
ported me; and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of 
manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services faithful and perse- 
^ In his Inaugural Address of April 30, 1 789. 



122 Historical Source Book 

vering, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. If benefits have re- 
sulted to our country from these services, let it always be remembered 
to your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, that 
under circumstances in which the passions, agitated in every direc- 
tion, were liable to mislead, amidst appearances sometimes dubious, 
vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging, in situations in which not 
unfrequently want of success has countenanced the spirit of criti- 
cism, the constancy of your support was the essential prop of the 
efforts and a guaranty of the plans by which they were effected. 
Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shaU carry it with me to my 
grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that Heaven may 
continue to you the choicest token of its beneficence — that your 
union and brotherly affection may be perpetual — that the free Con- 
stitution, which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly main- 
tained—that its administration in every department may be 
stamped with wisdom and virtue — that, in fine, the happiness of 
the people of these states, under the auspices of liberty, may be 
made complete, by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use 
of this blessing as will acquire to them the glory of recommending 
it to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation 
which is yet a stranger to it. 

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your weffare, 
which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger, 
natural to that soUcitude, urge me on an occasion Uke the present 
to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your 
frequent review, some sentiments, which are the result of much 
reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me 
all important to the permanency of your feHcity as a people. These 
will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in 
them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possi- 
bly have no personal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I forget, 
as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my senti- 
ments on a former and not dissimilar occasion.^ 

n. Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your 
hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm 
the attachment. 

III. The unity of government which constitutes you one people is 
also now dear to you. It is justly so; for it is a main pillar in the 
edifice of your real independence; the support of your tranquiUity 
1 In his Circular Letter to the governors of the states, June 8, 1783. 



Washington's Farewell Address 123 

at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity in 
every shape; of that very Hberty which you so highly prize. But as 
it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different 
quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to 
weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the 
point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal 
and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though 
often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment 
that you should properly estimate the immense value of your na- 
tional Union to your collective and individual happiness; that you 
should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to 
it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palla- 
dium of your poKtical safety and prosperity; watching for its preserva- 
tion with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest 
even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indig- 
nantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate 
any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred 
ties which now link together the various parts. 

For this j^ou have every inducement of sympathy and interest. 
Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has 
a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, 
which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt 
the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from 
local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have 
the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You 
have in a common cause fought and triumphed together; the inde- 
pendence and liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels and 
joint efforts, ^of common dangers, sufferings, and successes. 

But these considerations, however powerfully they address them- 
selves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which 
apply more immediately to your interest. Here every portion of 
our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guard- 
ing and preserving the Union of the whole. 

The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, pro- 
tected by the equal laws of a common government, finds in the pro- 
ductions of the latter great additional sources of maritime and 
commercial enterprise and precious materials of manufacturing in- 
dustry. The South, in the same intercourse, benefiting by the 
agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow and its commerce 
expand. Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of the 



124 Historical Source Book 

North, it finds its particular navigation invigorated; and, while it 
contributes, in different ways, to nourish and increase the general 
mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to the protection 
of a maritime strength to which itself is unequally adapted. The 
East, in a like intercourse with the West, already finds, and in the 
progressive improvement of interior communications, by land and 
water, will more and more find a valuable vent for the commodities 
which it brings from abroad or manufactures at home. The West 
derives from the East supplies requisite to its growth and comfort 
and, what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must of neces- 
sity owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own 
productions to the weight, influence, and the future maritime strength 
of the Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an indissoluble com- 
munity of interest as one nation. Any other tenure by which the 
West can hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its 
own separate strength, or from an apostate and unnatural connexion 
with any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious. 

While, then, every part of our country thus feels an immediate 
and particular interest in Union, all the parts combined cannot fail to 
find in the united mass of means and efforts greater strength, greater 
resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a 
less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations; and, 
what is of inestimable value, they must derive from Union an exemp- 
tion from those broils and wars between themselves which so fre- 
quently afflict neighboring countries not tied together by the same 
government; which their own rivalships alone would be sufficient 
to produce; but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and 
intrigues would stimulate and embitter. Hence, likewise, they will 
avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments 
which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, 
and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican 
Hberty. In this sense it is that your Union ought to be considered as 
a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to 
endear to you the preservation of the other. 

These considerations speak a persuasive language to every re- 
flecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of the Union 
as a primary object of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt whether a 
common government can embrace so large a sphere? Let experience 
solve it. To listen to mere speculation in such a case were criminal. 
We are authorized to hope that a proper organization of the whole, 



Washington's Farewell Address 125 

with the auxiliary agency of governments for the respective sub- 
divisions, will afford a happy issue to the experiment. It is well 
worth a fair and full experiment. With such pov/erful and obvious 
motives to Union, affecting all parts of our country, while experi- 
ence shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will 
always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who in any 
quarter may endeavor to weaken its bands. 

IV. In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it 
occurs as matter of serious concern that any ground should have 
been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discrimina- 
tions — Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence 
designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real 
difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of 
party to acquire influence, within particular districts, is to misrepre- 
sent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield 
yourselves too much against the jealousies and heartburnings which 
spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to 
each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affec- 
tion. The inhabitants of our western country have lately had a 
useful lesson on this head. They have seen, in the negotiation by the 
Executive and in the unanimous ratification by the Senate of the 
treaty with Spain, and in the universal satisfaction at that event 
throughout the United States, a decisive proof how unfounded were 
the suspicions propagated among them of a policy in the general 
government and in the i\tlantic states unfriendly to their interests 
in regard to the Mississippi. They have been witnesses to the forma- 
tion of two treaties, that with Great Britain and that with Spain, 
which secure to them everything they could desire, in respect to our 
foreign relations, toward confirming their prosperity.^ Will it not 
be their wisdom to rely for the preservation of these advantages on 
the Union by which they were procured? Will they not henceforth 
be deaf to those advisers, if such there are, who would sever them 
from their brethren and connect them wdth aliens? 

V. To the efficiency and permanency of your Union, a govern- 
ment for the whole is indispensable. No alliances, however strict, be- 
tween the parts can be an adequate substitute. They must inevitably 
experience the infractions and interruptions which all alhances in 

' Reference is here made to the Jay Treaty of 1795, adjusting our relations with 
Great Britain, and to the Pinckney Treaty by which Spain granted free navigation 
of the Mississippi to our citizens. 



126 Historical Source Book 

all times have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you 
have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a Constitu- 
tion of government better calculated than your former for an 
intimate Union and for the efficacious management of your com- 
mon concerns. This government, the offspring of our own choice, 
uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and 
mature dehberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribu- 
tion of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within 
itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your 
confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, comph- 
ance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined 
by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our 
poHtical systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their 
constitutions of government. But the Constitution which at any 
time exists, till changed by an exphcit and authentic act of the 
whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of 
the power and the right of the people to establish government 
presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established 
government. 

All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations 
and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real 
design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular dehberation 
and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this 
fundamental principle and of fatal tendency. They serve to organ- 
ize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force, to put in 
the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party — 
often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community 
— and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to 
make the public administration the mirror of the ill concerted and 
incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent 
and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by 
mutual interests. 

However combinations or associations of the above description 
may now and then answer popular ends, they are Hkely, in the 
course of time and things, to become potent engines by which cun- 
ning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the 
power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of gov- 
ernment; destroying afterwards the very engines which have Hfted 
them to unjust dominion. 

VI. Toward the preservation of your government, and the perma- 



Washington's Farewell Address 127 

nency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you 
steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged 
authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation 
upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of 
assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution, alterations 
which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine 
what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the changes to which 
you may be invited, remember that time and habit are at least as 
necessary to fix the true character of governments as of other human 
institutions; that experience is the surest standard by which to 
test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country; 
that faciHty in changes, upon the credit of mere hypothesis and 
opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of 
hypothesis and opinion; and remember, especially, that for the 
efficient management of your common interests, in a country so 
extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent 
with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself 
will fmd in such a government, with powers properly distributed and 
adjusted, its surest guardian; It is, indeed, little else than a name, 
w^here the government is ' too feeble to withstand the enterprises of 
faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits 
prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil 
enjoyment of the rights of person and property. 

VII. I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the 
State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geo- 
graphical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive 
view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful 
effects of the spirit of party, generally. 

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, hav- 
ing its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists 
under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, con- 
trolled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in 
its greatest rankness and is truly their worst enemy. 

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened 
by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in differ- 
ent ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, 
is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more 
formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which 
result, gradually inchne the minds of men to seek security and repose 
in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief 



128 Historical Source Book 

of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his 
competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own eleva- 
tion on the ruins of public liberty. 

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which 
nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common 
and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make 
it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. 

It serves always to distract the public counsels and enfeeble the 
public administration. It agitates the community with ill founded 
jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against 
another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the 
doors to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated 
access to the government itself through the channels of party pas- 
sions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to 
the policy and will of another. 

There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks 
upon the administration of the government, and serve to keep alive 
the spirit of liberty. This within certain Hmits is probably true; 
and in governments of a monarchical cast patriotism may look with 
indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those 
of the popular character, in governments purel}^ elective, it is a spirit 
not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain 
there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose, 
and, there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be, 
by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not 
to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its burst- 
ing into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume. 

VIII. It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free 
country should inspire caution, in those intrusted \nth its adminis- 
tration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional 
spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department 
to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to 
consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to 
create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just 
estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which pre- 
dominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth 
of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of 
political power, by dividing and distributing it into different deposi- 
tories, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against 
invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient 



Washington's Farewell Address 129 

and modern: some of them in our country and under our own eyes. 
To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in 
the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the 
constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected 
by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But 
let there be no change by usurpation; for, though this, in one instance, 
may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which 
free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly 
overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit which 
the use can at any time yield. 

IK. Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political pros- 
perity, rehgion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain 
would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor 
to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest 
props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally 
with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume 
could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. 
Let it simply be asked where is the security for property, for reputa- 
tion, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, 
which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And 
let us with caution indulge the supposition that morahty can be 
maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the 
influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason 
and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can 
prevail in exclusion of religious principle. 

It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary 
spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more 
or less force to ever>'- species of free government. Who that is a 
sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to 
shake the foundation of the fabric? 

Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions 
for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the struc- 
ture of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential 
that public opinion should be enlightened. 

X. As a very important source of strength and security, cherish 
public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly 
as possible; avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but 
remembering also that timely- disbursements to prepare for danger 
frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it; avoiding 
likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions 



130 Historical Source Book 

of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge t 
the debts which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungener- 
ously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought 
to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your representa- 
tives, but it is necessary that public opinion should cooperate. To 
facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is essential that 
you should practically bear in mind that toward the payment of 
debts there must be revenue; that to have revenue there must be 
taxes; that no taxes can be devised which are not more or less incon- 
venient and unpleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment insepa- 
rable from the selection of the proper objects (which is always a 
choice of dilliculties) ought to be a decisive motive for a candid con- 
struction of the conduct of the government in making it, and for a 
spirit of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining revenue which 
the public exigencies may at any time dictate. 

XI. Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate 
peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this 
conduct; and can it be that good poUcy does not equally enjoin it? 
It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a 
great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel 
example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevo- 
lence. Who can doubt that, in the course of time and things, the 
fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages 
which might be lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be that 
Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation 
with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by 
every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered 
impossible by its vices? 

XII, In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential 
than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, 
and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and 
that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings toward all should 
be cultivated. The nation which indulges toward another an habitual 
hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a 
slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient 
to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one 
nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and 
injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty 
and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. 
Hence frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody con- 



Washington's Farewell Address 131 

tests. The nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes 
impels to war the government, contrary to the best calculations of 
policy. The government sometimes participates in the national 
propensity and adopts through passion what reason would reject; 
at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation subservient 
to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other 
sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps 
the liberty, of nations has been the victim. 

So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another 
produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facili- 
tating the illusion of an imaginary common interest, in cases where 
no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities 
of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels 
and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justification. 
It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied 
to others, which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the con- 
cessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been 
retained; and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to 
retahate in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. 
And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote 
themselves to the favored nation) facility to betray or sacrifice the 
interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with 
popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of 
obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a lauda- 
ble zeal for public good, the base of foolish compliances of ambition, 
corruption, or infatuation. 

As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such at- 
tachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and 
independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to 
tamper with domestic factions, to practise the arts of seduction, 
to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public counsels! 
Such an attachment of a small or weak, toward a great and powerful 
nation, dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter. 

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence I conjure you to 
believe me, fellow citizens, the jealousy of a free people ought to 
be constantly awake; since history and experience prove that foreign 
influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. 
But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial; else it becomes 
the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a de- 
fense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and 



132 Historical Source Book 

excessive dislike of another, cause those whom they actuate to see 
danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts 
of influence on the other. \Real patriots, who m.ay resist the intrigues 
of the favorite, are Hable to become suspected and odious; while 
its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, 
to surrender their interests./ 

XIII. The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, 
is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little 
political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed 
engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let 
us stop. 

Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or 
a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent 
controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our 
concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate 
ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her poli- 
tics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships 
or enmities. 

Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pur- 
sue a different course. If we remain one people, under an efficient 
government, the period is not far off when we may defy material 
injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an atti- 
tude as will cause the neutrality, we may at any time resolve upon, 
to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the 
impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard 
the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as 
our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel. 

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why 
quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving 
our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and 
prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, 
humor, or caprice? 

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with 
any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at 
liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patroniz- 
ing infideUty to existing engagements. (I hold the maxim no less 
applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always 
the best poHcy.) I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be 
observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unneces- 
sary and would be unwise to extend them. 



Washington's Farewell Address 133 

Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establiiihments, 
on a respectably defensive posture, we may safely trust to tempo- 
rary alliances for extraordinary emergencies. 

Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended 
by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy 
should hold an equal and impartial hand; neither seeking nor grant- 
ing exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of 
things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of 
commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing, with powers so dis- 
posed — in order to give trade a stable course, to define the 
rights of our merchants, and to enable the government to support 
them — conventional rules of intercourse, the best that present 
circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, 
and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as ex- 
perience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in 
view that it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors 
from another; that it must pay with a portion of its independ- 
ence for whatever it may accept under that character; that, 
by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having 
given equivalents for nominal favors, and yet of being reproached 
with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater 
error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to 
nation. It is an illusion which experience must cure, which a 
just pride ought to discard. 

XIV. In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old 
and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong 
and lasting impression I could wish, that they will control the usual 
current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the 
course which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But, if 
I may even flatter myself that they may be productive of some 
partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then 
recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mis- 
chiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended 
patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for 
your welfare by which they have been dictated. 

How far in the discharge of my official duties I have been guided 
by the principles which have been delineated, the pubHc records and 
other evidences of my conduct must witness to you and to the world. 
To myself, the assurance of my own conscience is that I have at least 
beHeved myself to be guided by them. 



134 Historical Source Book 

XV. In relating to the still subsisting war in Europe,^ my proclama- 
tion^ of the 22nd of April, 1793, is the index to my plan. Sanctioned 
by your approving voice, and by that of your representatives in both 
houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually gov- 
erned me; uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it. 

After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I 
could obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all the 
circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in 
duty and interest to take, a neutral position. Having taken it, I 
determined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain it, with 
moderation, perseverance, and firmness. 

The considerations which respect the right to hold this conduct, 
it is not necessary on this occasion to detail. I will only observe 
that, according to my understanding of the matter, that right, so 
far from being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has been 
virtually admitted by all. 

The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without 
anything more, from the obHgation which justice and humanity 
impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to main- 
tain inviolate the relations of peace and amity toward other nations. 

The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will best 
be referred to your own reflections and experience. With me, a 
predominant motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our coun- 
try to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress 
without interruption to that degree of strength and consistency 
which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of 
its own fortunes. 

XVI. Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, 
I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible 
of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed 
many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently l)eseech the Al- 
mighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I 
shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease 
to view them \vith indulgence; and that, after forty-five years of 
my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of 
incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must 
soon be to the mansions of rest. 

* A reference to the war waged by the Second Coalition against republican 
France. 

2 Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality. 



Washington's Farewell Address 135 

Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated 
by that fervent love toward it, which is so natural to a man who 
views in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several 
generations, I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat, 
in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoy- 
ment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow citizens, the benign 
influence of good laws under a free government — the ever favorite 
object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual 
cares, labors, and dangers. 



20. HOLY ALLIANCE, 1815 

This document was signed on September 26, 181 5, by 
Alexander I, tsar of Russia, Francis I, emperor of Austria, and 
Frederick William III, king of Prussia. The signatures of other 
European sovereigns were subsequently added. George IV, 
the British Prince Regent, declined to sign it, on the constitu- 
tional ground that all acts of the Crown required the counter- 
signature of a minister, but he expressed his entire concurrence 
with its principles. The Pope and the Sultan were not invited 
to accede to the declaration. The Holy Alliance originated 
with Alexander I, who after the Napoleonic wars sincerely 
desired to provide some basis for a general confederation of 
Europe in the interest of universal peace and international 
morality. The association thus formed came to be erroneously 
considered a conspiracy against popular liberty, because of 
the reactionary policies followed by the European monarchs 
after 1815. As a matter of fact, the Holy Alliance never 
became effective; it was soon replaced by definite treaties 
between the great powers who formed the European Concert.' 
At the close of the nineteenth century, however, it furnished 
the inspiration for the Peace Circular of Nicholas II, which 
resulted in the First Hague Conference of 1899. 

Holy Alliance, 181 5 

In the Name of the Most Holy and Indivisible Trinity 

Their Majesties, the emperor of Austria, the king of Prussia, and 
the emperor of Russia, having, in consequence of the great events 
which have marked the course of the last three years in Europe, 
and especially of the blessings which it has pleased divine Provi- 
dence to shower down upon those states which place their confi- 
dence and their hope on it alone, acquired the intimate comnction 
of the necessity of settUng the steps to be observed by the powers. 

1 Edward Hertslet, The Map oj Europe by Treaty, vol. i, pp. 317-319- London, 
1875-1891. 



Holy Alliance 137 

in their reciprocal relations, upon the sublime truths which the holy- 
religion of our Savior teaches; 

They solemnly declare that the present act has no other object 
than to publish, in the face of the whole world, their fixed resolu- 
tion, both in the administration of their respective states and in 
their poHtical relations with every other government, to take for 
their sole guide the precepts of that holy religion, namely, the pre- 
cepts of justice, Christian charity, and peace, which, far from being 
appUcable only to private concerns, must have an immediate influ- 
ence on the councils of princes and guide all their steps, as being 
the only means of consolidating human institutions and remedying 
their imperfections. In consequence, their Majesties have agreed 
on the following articles: 

I. Conformably to the words of the Holy Scriptures, which com- 
mand all men to consider each other as brethren, the three con- 
tracting monarchs will remain united by the bonds of a true and 
indissoluble fraternity; and, considering each other as fellow country- 
men, they will, on all occasions and in all places, lend each other aid 
and assistance; and, regarding themselves toward their subjects and 
armies as fathers of families, they will lead them, in the same spirit 
of fraternity with which they are animated, to protect religion, 
peace, and justice. 

II. In consequence, the sole principle of force, whether between 
the said governments or between their subjects, shall be that of 
doing each other reciprocal service, and of testifying by unalterable 
good-will the mutual affection with which they ought to be animated, 
to consider themselves all as members of one and the same Christian 
nation; the three allied princes looking on themselves as merely 
delegated by Providence to govern three branches of the one family, 
namely, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, thus confessing that the 
Christian world, of which they and their people form a part, has in 
reahty no other sovereign than Him to whom alone power really 
belongs, because in Him alone are found all the treasures of love, 
science, and infinite wisdom, that is to say, God, our divine Savior, 
the Word of the Most High, the Word of Life. Their Majesties con- 
sequently recommend to their people, with the most tender solici- 
tude, as the sole means of enjoying that peace which arises from a 
good conscience and which alone is durable, to strengthen themselves 
every day more and more in the principles and exercise of the duties 
which the divine Savior has taught to mankind. 



138 Historical Source Book 

III. All the powers who shall choose solemnly to avow the 
sacred principles which have dictated the present act, and shall 
acknowledge how important it is for the happiness of nations, too 
long agitated, that these truths should henceforth exercise over the 
destinies of mankind all the influence which belongs to them, will be 
received with equal ardor and affection into this Holy AlHance. 

Done in triplicate, and signed at Paris, the year of grace, 181 5, Septem- 
ber, 14/26. 



21. MONROE DOCTRINE, 1823 ^ 

The circumstances giving rise to the promulgation of the 
Monroe Doctrine are famihar to every student of American 
history. The downfall of Napoleon had been followed by the 
restoration of the old ''legitimate" dynasties in Europe and 
the revival of absolutism, privilege, and divine right. In order 
to cope with liberal movements w^hich might threaten the 
security of their thrones, the alhed sovereigns resorted to armed 
intervention. Austrian troops in 1821 suppressed two revolu- 
tionary outbreaks in Italy, and French soldiers in 1823 put 
down a revolution in Spain. The sovereigns then prepared to 
extend their activities to Spain's American colonies, which had 
thrown off their allegiance to the mother country. Great 
Britain and the United States felt thoroughly alarmed at this 
prospect of European interference in the affairs of the New 
World. Both countries sympathized with the republican 
movement in Spanish America and both had commercial in- 
terests there which would have been destroyed if Spain, after 
subduing the revolted colonies, were allowed to revive her old 
monopolistic policies. Another cause for anxiety was found 
in the situation on the northwestern coast of North America, 
where Russia seemed likely to extend her influence south- 
ward to Oregon and even to California. The attitude of 
the United States (and that of Great Britain as well) found 
expression in President Monroe's seventh annual message 
to Congress, December 2, 1823. The doctrine which the 
President set forth was, of course, not new with him; its 
roots may be found in the writings and speeches of Jeffer- 
son and John Adams, and especially in Washington's Fare- 
well Address. 

' J. D. Richardson, A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents^ 
1780-1807, vol. ii, pp. 209, 217-219. Washington, 1896-1899. 

139 



I40 Historical Source Book 

Monroe Doctrine, 1823 

I. At the proposal of the Russian imperial government, made 
through the minister of the emperor residing here, a full power and 
instructions have been transmitted to the minister of the United 
States at St. Petersburg to arrange, by amicable negotiation, the 
respective rights and interests of the two nations on the northwest 
coast of this continent. A similar proposal had been made by his 
imperial Majesty to the government of Great Britain, which has 
likewise been acceded to. The government of the United States has 
been desirous, by this friendly proceeding, of manifesting the great 
value which they have invariably attached to the friendship of the 
emperor, and their solicitude to cultivate the best understanding 
with his government. In the discussions to which this interest has 
given rise, and the arrangements by which they may terminate, 
the occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in 
which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, 
that the x\merican continents, by the free and independent condition 
which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be 
considered as subjects for future colonization by any European 
powers. 

II. It was stated at the commencement of the last session that a 
great effort was then making in Spain and Portugal to improve the 
condition of the people of those countries, and that it appeared to 
be conducted with extraordinary moderation. It need scarcely be 
remarked that the result has been, so far, very different from what 
was then anticipated. Of events in that quarter of the globe with 
which we have so much intercourse, and from which we derive our 
origin, we have always been anxious and interested spectators. The 
citizens of the United States cherish sentiments the most friendly, 
in favor of the liberty and happiness of their fellow men on that 
side of the Atlantic. In the wars of the European powers in matters 
relating to themselves we have never taken any part, nor does it 
comport with our policy so to do. It is only when our rights are 
invaded or seriously menaced that we resent injuries or make prepa- 
ration for our defense. With the movements in this hemisphere 
we are, of necessity, more immediately connected, and by causes 
which must be obvious to all enlightened and impartial observers. 



Monroe Doctrine 141 

The political system of the allied powers is essentially different in 
this respect from that of America. This difference proceeds from 
that which exists in their respective governments. And to the de- 
fense of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of so much 
blood and treasure, and matured by the wisdom of their most en- 
lightened citizens, and under which we have enjoyed unexampled 
felicity, this whole nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to can- 
dor, and to the amicable relations existing between the United States 
and those powers, to declare that we should consider any attempt on 
their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere 
as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies 
or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and 
shall not interfere. But with the governments who have declared their 
independence, and maintained it, and whose independence we have, 
on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we 
could not viev/ any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, 
or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European 
power, in any other light than as the manifestation of ah unfriendly 
disposition toward the United States. In the war between these new 
governments and Spain we declared our neutrality at the time of 
their recognition, and to this we have adhered and shall continue 
to adhere, provided no change shall occur which, in the judgment 
of the competent authorities of this government, shall make a corre- 
sponding change on the part of the United States indispensable to 
their security. 

III. The late events in Spain and Portugal show that Europe is still 
unsettled. Of this important fact no stronger proof can be adduced 
than that the allied powers should have thought it proper, on any 
principle satisfactory to themselves, to have interposed, by force, 
in the internal concerns of Spain. To what extent such interposi- 
tion may be carried, on the same principle, is a question in which all 
independent powers whose governments differ from their3 are inter- 
ested, even those most remote, and surely none more so than the 
United States. Our poHcy in regard to Europe, which was adopted 
at an early stage of the wars which have so long agitated that quarter 
of the globe, nevertheless remains the same, which is, not to inter- 
fere in the internal concerns of any of its powers; to consider the 
government de facto as the legitimate government for us; to culti- 
vate friendly relations with it, and to preserve those relations by a 
frank, firm, and manly policy, meeting, in all instances, the just 



14^ Historical Source Book 

claims of every power, submitting to injuries from none. But in 
regard to these continents, circumstances are eminently and con- 
spiciously different. It is impossible that the alKed powers should 
extend their political system to any portion of either continent 
without endangering our peace and happiness; nor can any one 
believe that our southern brethren, if left to themselves, would 
adopt it of their own accord. It is equally impossible, therefore, 
that we should behold such interposition, in any form, with indiffer- 
ence. If we look to the comparative strength and resources of Spain 
and those new governments, and their distance from each other, it 
must be obvious that she can never subdue them. It is still the true 
policy of the United States to leave the parties to themselves, in 
the hope that other powers will pursue the same course. 



m 



22. CHARTIST PETITION, 1838 ^ 

The movement called Chartism arose in Great Britain as a 
consequence of the failure of the Reform Act of 1832 to enfran- 
chise the working classes. The nature of the movement is 
well set forth in the following petition, which was drawn up 
by the Council of the Birmingham Union. It contains five 
of the so-called Six Points of the petition presented to the 
House of Commons in 1848. The sixth point — equal electoral 
districts — was omitted, perhaps because it was considered 
a corollary of universal suffrage. The student will notice that 
the petitioners demanded political, not economic, reforms; 
they wanted Great Britain to be a truly democratic country. 
The only Chartist proposal which has not subsequently been 
incorporated in legislation was that Jor annual Parliaments. 
The maximum length of any Parliament, however, is now 
limited to five years. 

Chartist Petition, 1838 

To the honorable the Commons of Great Britain and Ireland, in 
Parliament assembled, the petition of the undersigned, their 
suffering countr3anen, humbly showeth: 

I. That we, your petitioners, dwell in a land whose merchants are 
noted for their enterprise, whose manufacturers are very skillful, 
and whose workm^en are proverbial for their industry. The land 
itself is goodly, the soil rich, and the temperature wholesome. It is 
abundantly furnished with the materials of commerce and trade. 
It has numerous and convenient harbors. In facility of internal 
communication it exceeds all others. For three and twenty years 
we have enjoyed a profound peace. Yet, with all the elements of 
national prosperity, and with every disposition and capacity to 
take advantage of them, we find ourselves overwhelmed with public 
and private suffering. We are bowed down under a load of taxes, 

1 R. G. Gammage, History of the Chartist Movement, pp. 87-90. Newcastle-on- 
Tyne, 1894. 

143 



144 Historical Source Book 

which, notwithstanding, fall greatly short of the wants of our rulers. 
Our traders are trembling on the verge of bankruptcy; our workmen 
are starving. Capital brings no profit, and labor no remuneration. 
The home of the artificer is desolate, and the warehouse of the pawn- 
broker is full. The workhouse is crowded, and the manufactory is 
deserted. We have looked on every side; we have searched dili- 
gently in order to find out the causes of distress so sore and so long 
continued. We can discover none in nature or in Providence. Heaven 
has dealt graciously by the people, nor have the people abused its 
grace, but the foolishness of our rulers has made the goodness of 
God of none effect. The energies of a mighty kingdom have 
been wasted in building up the power of selfish and ignorant men, 
and its resources squandered for their aggrandizement. The good of 
a part has been advanced at the sacrifice of the good of the nation. 
The few have governed for the interest of the few, while the interests 
of the many have been sottishly neglected, or insolently and tyran- 
nously trampled upon. 

II. It was the fond expectation of the friends of the people that 
a remedy for the greater part, if not for the whole of their grievances, 
would be found in the Reform Act of 1832. They regarded that act 
as a wise means to a worthy end, as the machinery of an improved 
legislation, where the will of the masses would be at length potential. 
They have been bitterly and basely deceived. The fruit, which looked 
so fair to the eye, has turned to dust and ashes when gathered. The 
Reform Act has effected a transfer of power from one domineering fac- 
tion to another, and left the people as helpless as before. Our slavery 
has been exchanged for an apprenticeship to liberty, which has ag- 
gravated the painful feelings of our social degradation, by adding to 
them the sickening of still deferred hope. We come before your 
honorable house to tell you, with all humility, that this state of things 
must not be permitted to continue. That it cannot long continue, 
without very seriously endangering the stability of the throne, and 
the peace of the kingdom, and that if, by God's help, and all lawful 
and constitutional appliances, an end can be put to it, we are fully 
resolved that it shall speedily come to an end. We tell your honor- 
able house that the capital of the master must no longer be deprived 
of its due profit; that the labor of the workman must no longer be 
deprived of its due reward. That the laws which make food dear, 
and the laws which make money scarce, must be abolished. That 
taxation must be made to fall on property, not on industry. That the 



Chartist Petition 145 

good of the many, as it is the only legitimate end, so must it be the 
sole study of the government. 

III. As a preliminary essential to these and other requisite changes 
— as the means by which alone the interests of the people can be 
effectually vindicated and secured, we demand that those interests 
be confided to the keeping of the people. When the State calls for 
defenders, when it calls for money, no consideration of poverty or 
ignorance can be pleaded in refusal or delay of the call. Required, 
as we are universally, to support and obey the laws, nature and reason 
entitle us to demand that in the m.aking of the laws the universal 
voice shall be implicitly listened to. We perform the duties of free- 
men; we must have the privileges of freemen. Therefore, we de- 
mand universal suffrage. The suffrage, to be exempt from the cor- 
ruption of the wealthy and the violence of the powerful, must be 
secret. The assertion of our right necessarily involves the power of 
our uncontrolled exercise. We ask for the reaHty of a good, not for 
its semblance, therefore we demand the ballot. The connection 
between the representatives and the people, to be beneficial, must 
be intimate. The legislative and constituent powers, for correction 
and for instruction, ought to be brought into frequent contact. Errors 
which are comparatively light, when susceptible of a speedy popular 
remedy, may produce the most disastrous effects when permitted to 
grow inveterate through years of compulsory endurance. To public 
safety, as weU as public confidence, frequent elections are essential. 
Therefore, we demand annual parliaments. With power to choose, 
and freedom in choosing, the range of our choice must be unrestricted. 
We are compelled, by the existing laws, to take for our representatives 
men who are incapable of appreciating our difficulties, or have little 
sympathy with them; merchants who have retired from trade and 
no longer feel its harassings; proprietors of land who are alike igno- 
rant of its evils and its cure; lawyers by whom the notoriety of the 
senate is courted only as a means of obtaining notice in the courts. 
The labors of a representative who is sedulous in the discharge of 
his duty are numerous and burdensome. It is neither just, nor rea- 
sonable, nor safe, that they should continue to be gratuitously ren- 
dered. We demand that in the future election of members of your 
honorable house the approbation of the constituency shall be the sole 
quahfication, and that, to every representative so chosen, shall be 
assigned out of the public taxes a fair and adequate remuneration for 
the time which he is called upon to devote to the public service. 



146 Historical Source Book 

IV. The management of this mighty kingdom has hitherto been 
a subject for contending factions to try their selfish experiments upon. 
We have felt the consequences in our sorrowful experience. Short 
gUmmerings of uncertain enjoyment, swallowed up by long and dark 
seasons of suffering. If the self-govenmient of the people should not 
remove their distresses, it will, at least, remove their repinings. Uni- 
versal suffrage will, and it alone can, bring true and lasting peace to 
the nation; we firmly beHeve that it will also bring prosperity. May 
it therefore please your honorable house to take this our petition into 
your most serious consideration, and to use your utmost endeavors, 
by all constitutional means, to have a law passed granting to every 
male of lawful age, sane mind, and unconvicted of crime, the right 
of voting for members of ParHament, and directing all future elections 
of members of Parliament to be in the way of secret ballot, and or- 
daining that the duration of Parliament, so chosen, shall in no case 
exceed one year, and abolishing all property qualifications in the 
members, and providing for their due remuneration while in attend- 
ance on their parliamentary duties. 

" And your petitioners shall ever pray." 



23. DURHAM REPORT, 1839 ' 

The relations between the original French population of 
Canada and the American "Tories" and British emigrants 
who settled there after the Revolutionary War long remained 
unfriendly. The antagonism of the two peoples was especially 
marked in Lower Canada, where the French outnumbered the 
British three to one. After the failure of the Rebellion of 
1837, Great Britain sent Lord Durham as High Commissioner 
to investigate the political situation in Canada. In his Report 
Lord Durham recommended that Upper Canada (Ontario) 
and Lower Canada (Quebec) be joined in a legislative union, 
in order to bring about a peaceful fusion of Frenchmen and 
Englishmen under a common government. This action was 
immediately taken, thus preparing the way for the Dominion 
of Canada in 1867. The High Commissioner also recom- 
mended that the fullest liberty be accorded the legislature of 
the united provinces, so that in the future they should be un- 
controlled by the mother country, except in foreign affairs 
and other matters of strictly imperial interest. His arguments 
for colonial self-government produced a lasting effect on British 
policy. Not only did Great Britain grant free parliamentary 
institutions to Canada, but she has also bestowed them upon 
her other white dominions in Australasia and South Africa 

Durham Report, 1830 

I. Such are the lamentable results of the political and social evils 
which have so long agitated the Canadas; and such is their condi- 
tion that, at the present moment, we are called on to take immediate 
precautions against dangers so alarming as those of rebellion, foreign 
invasion, and utter exhaustion and depopulation. When I look on 
the various and deep-rooted causes of mischief which the past 

^ The Report of the Earl of Durham, pp. 203-208, 229-231. Second Edition. 
London, 1905. Methuen and Company. 

147 



148 Historical Source Book 

inquiry has pointed out as existing in every institution, in the con- | 
stitutions, and in the very composition of society throughout a great 
part of these provinces, I almost shrink from the apparent presump- . 
tion of grappHng with these gigantic difficulties. Nor shall I attempt I 
to do so in detail. I rely on the efficacy of reform in the constitu- 
tional system by which these colonies are governed, for the removal 
of every abuse in their administration which defective institutions 
have engendered. If a system can be devised which shall lay in 
these countries the foundation of an efficient and popular govern- 
ment, insure harmony, in place of collision, between the various 
powers of the State, and bring the influence of a vigorous pubhc 
opinion to bear on every detail of public affairs, we may rely on 
sufficient remedies being found for the present vices of the adminis- 
trative system. 

The preceding pages have sufficiently pointed out the nature of 
those evils, to the extensive operation of which I attribute the vari- 
ous practical grievances and the present unsatisfactory condition of 
the North American colonies. 

II. It is not by weakening but strengthening the influence of the 
people on its government; by confining within much narrower 
bounds than those hitherto allotted to it, and not by extending the 
interference of the imperial authorities in the details of colonial 
affairs, that I believe that harmony is to be restored where dissension 
has so long prevailed; and a regularity and vigor hitherto unknown 
introduced into the administration of these provinces. It needs no 
change in the principles of government, no invention of a new con- 
stitutional theory, to supply the remedy which would, in my opinion, 
completely remove the existing poHtical disorders. It needs but to 
follow out consistently the principles of the British constitution, and 
introduce into the government of these great colonies those wise 
provisions by which alone the working of the representative system 
can in any country be rendered harmonious and efficient. We are 
not now to consider the policy of establishing representative gov- 
ernment in the North American colonies. That has been irrevoc- 
ably done, and the experiment of depriving the people of their 
present constitutional power is not to be thought of. To conduct 
their government harmoniously, in accordance with its established 
principles, is now the business of its rulers; and I know not how 
it is possible to secure that harmony in any other way than by 
administering the government on those principles which have been 



Durham Report 149 

found perfectly efficacious in Great Britain. I would not impair a 
single prerogative of the Crown; on the contrary, I believe that the 
interests of the people of these colonies require the protection of pre- 
rogatives which have not hitherto been exercised. But the Crown 
must, on the other hand, submit to the necessary consequences of 
representative institutions; and if it has to carry on the government 
in unison with a representative body, it must consent to carry it on 
by means of those in whom that representative body has confidence. 

In England this principle has been so long considered an indis- 
putable and essential part of our constitution, that it has really 
hardly ever been found necessary to inquire into the means by which 
its observance is enforced. When a ministry ceases to command a 
majority in Parliament on great questions of policy, its doom is 
immediately sealed; and it would appear to us as strange to attempt, 
for any time, to carry on a government by means of ministers per- 
petually in a minority, as it would be to pass laws with a majority 
of votes against them. The ancient constitutional remedies, by 
impeachment and a stoppage of the supplies, have never, since the 
reign of William III, been brought into operation for the purpose of 
removing a ministry. They have never been called for, because, in 
fact, it has been the habit of ministers rather to anticipate the occur- 
rence of an absolutely hostile vote, and to retire, when supported 
only by a bare and uncertain majority. If colonial legislatures have 
frequently stopped the supplies, if they have harassed public servants 
by unjust or harsh impeachments, it was because the removal of an 
unpopular administration could not be effected in the colonies by 
those milder indications of a want of confidence which have always 
sufficed to attain the end in the mother country. 

III. The means which have occasionally been proposed in the col- 
onies themselves appear to me by no means calculated to attain the 
desired end in the best way. These proposals indicate such a want of 
reliance on the willingness of the imperial government to acquiesce 
in the adoption of a better system, as, if warranted, would render 
an harmonious adjustment of the different powers of the State 
utterly hopeless. An elective executive council would not only be 
utterly inconsistent with monarchical government, but would really, 
under the nominal authority of the Crown, deprive the community 
of one of the great advantages of an hereditary monarchy. Every 
purpose of popular control might be combined with every advantage 
of vesting the immediate choice of advisers in the Crown, were the 



150 Historical Source Book 

colonial governor to be instructed to secure the cooperation of the 
assembly in his policy, by intrusting its administration to such men 
as could command a majority; and if he were given to understand 
that he need count on no aid from home in any difference with the 
assembly that should not directly involve the relations between the 
mother country and the colony. This change might be effected by 
a single dispatch containing such instructions; or, if any legal enact- 
ment were requisite, it would only be one that would render it neces- 
sary that the official acts of the governor should be countersigned 
by some public functionary. This would induce responsibility for 
every act of the government, and, as a natural consequence, it would 
necessitate the substitution of a system of administration, by means 
of competent heads of departments, for the present rude machinery 
of an executive council. The governor, if he wished to retain ad- 
visers not possessing the confidence of the existing assembly, might 
rely on the effect of an appeal to the people, and, if unsuccessful, he 
might be coerced by a refusal of supplies, or his advisers might be 
terrified by the prospect of impeachment. But there can be no 
reason for apprehending that either party would enter on a contest, 
when each would find its interest in the maintenance of harmony; 
and the abuse of the powers which each would constitutionally pos- 
sess would cease when the struggle for larger powers became un- 
necessary. Nor can I conceive that it would be found impossible or 
difficult to conduct a colonial government with precisely that limi- 
tation of the respective powers which has been so long and so easily 
maintained in Great Britain. 

IV. I know that it has been urged that the principles which are 
productive of harmony and good government in the mother country 
are by no means applicable to a colonial dependency. It is said 
that it is necessary that the administration of a colony should be 
carried on by persons nominated without any reference to the wishes 
of its people; that they have to carry into effect the policy, not of 
that people, but of the authorities at home; and that a colony which 
should name all its own administrative functionaries, would, in fact, 
cease to be dependent. I admit that the system which I propose 
would, in fact, place the internal government of the colony in the 
hands of the colonists themselves; and that we should thus leave to 
them the execution of the laws, of which we have long intrusted the 
making solely to them. Perfectly aware of the value of our colonial 
possessions, and strongly impressed with the necessity of maintain- 



Durham Report 151 

ing our connection with them, I know not in what respect it can be 
desirable that we should interfere with their internal legislation in 
matters which do not affect their relations with the mother country. 
The matters which so concern us are very few. The constitution of 
the form of government, the regulation of foreign relations and of 
trade with the mother country, the other British colonies, and foreign 
nations, and the disposal of the public lands, are the only points on 
which the mother country requires a control. This control is now 
sufficiently secured by the authority of the imperial legislature; by 
the protection which the colony derives from us against foreign 
enemies; by the beneficial terms which our laws secure to its trade; 
and by its share of the reciprocal benefits which would be conferred 
by a wise system of colonization. A perfect subordination, on the 
part of the colony, on these points, is secured by the advantages which 
it finds in the continuance of its connection with the empire. It cer- 
tainly is not strengthened, but greatly weakened, by a vexatious 
interference on the part of the home government with the enactment 
of laws for regulating the internal concerns of the colony, or in the 
selection of the persons intrusted with their execution. The colonists 
may not always know what laws are best for them, or which of their 
countrymen are the fittest for conducting their affairs; but, at least, 
they have a greater interest in coming to a right judgment on these 
points, and will take greater pains to do so, than those whose welfare 
is very remotely and slightly affected by the good or bad legislation 
of these portions of the empire. If the colonists make bad laws 
and select improper persons to conduct their affairs, they will gener- 
ally be the only, always the greatest, sufferers; and, like the people 
of other countries, they must bear the ills which they bring on them- 
selves until they choose to apply the remedy. But it surely cannot 
be the duty or the interest of Great Britain to keep a most expensive 
military possession of these colonies, in order that a governor or 
secretary of state may be able to confer colonial appointments on 
one rather than another set of persons in the colonies. For this is 
really the only question at issue.^ 

V. But while I convince myself that such desirable ends would 

* Lord Durham then went on to urge that the Canadian government should be 
British, and that the numerical superiority of the French in Lower Canada might 
be overcome by a legislative union of Upper Canada and Lower Canada, which would 
give an English-speaking majority. 



152 Historical Source Book 

be secured by a legislative union of the two provinces, I am inclined 
to go further, and inquire whether all these objects would not more 
surely be attained by extending this legislative union over all the 
British provinces in North America; and whether the advantages 
which I anticipate for two of them, might not, and should not, in 
justice be extended over all. Such an union would at once decisively 
settle the question of races; it would enable all the provinces to co- 
operate for all common purposes; and, above all, it would form a 
great and powerful people, possessing the means of securing good and 
responsible government for itself, and which, under the protection 
of the British Empire, might in some measure counterbalance the 
preponderant and increasing influence of the United States on the 
American continent. I do not anticipate that a colonial legislature 
thus strong and thus self-governing would desire to abandon the 
connection with Great Britain. On the contrary, I believe that the 
practical relief from undue interference, which would be the result 
of such a change, would strengthen the present bond of feelings and 
interests; and that the connection would only become more dur- 
able and advantageous by having more of equality, of freedom, and 
of local independence. But, at any rate, our first duty is to secure 
the well-being of our colonial countrymen; and if in the hidden de- 
crees of that wisdom by which this world is ruled it is written that 
these countries are not forever to remain portions of the empire, we 
owe it to our honor to take good care that, when they separate from 
us, they should not be the only countries on the American continent 
in which the Anglo-Saxon race shall be found unfit to govern itself. 

VI. I am, in truth, so far from believing that the increased power 
and weight that would be given to these colonies by union would 
endanger their connection with the empire, that I look to it as the 
only means of fostering such a national feeling throughout them as 
would effectually counterbalance whatever tendencies may now exist 
toward separation. No large community of free and intelligent men 
will long feel contented with a poHtical system which places them, 
because it places their country, in a position of inferiority to their 
neighbors. The colonist of Great Britain is Hnked, it is true, to a 
mighty empire; and the glories of its history, the visible signs of its 
present power, and the civilization of its people are calculated to 
raise and gratify his national pride. But he feels, also, that his link 
to that empire is one of remote dependence; he catches but passing 
and inadequate glimpses of its power and prosperity; he knows that 



Durham Report 153 

in its government he and his own countrymen have no voice. While 
his neighbor on the other side of the frontier assumes importance, 
from the notion that his vote exercises some influence on the councils, 
and that he himself has some share in the onward progress of a 
mighty nation, the colonist feels the deadening influence of the 
narrow and subordinate community to which he belongs. In his 
own, and in the surrounding colonies, he finds petty objects occupy- 
ing petty, stationary, and divided societies; and it is only when the 
chances of an uncertain and tardy communication bring intelligence 
of what has passed a month before on the other side of the Atlantic, 
that he is reminded of the empire with which he is connected. 
But the influence of the United States surrounds him on every 
side, and is forever present. It extends itself as population aug- 
ments and intercourse increases: it penetrates exery portion of the 
continent into which the restless spirit of American speculation 
impels the settler or the trader; it is felt in all the transactions of 
commerce, from the important operations of the monetary system 
down to the minor details of ordinary trafl5c; it stamps on all the 
habits and opinions of the surrounding countries the common char- 
acteristics of the thoughts, feelings, and customs of the American 
people. Such is necessarily the influence which a great nation exer- 
cises on the small communities which surround it. Its thoughts 
and manners subjugate them, even when nominally independent of 
its authority. If we wish to prevent the extension of this influence, 
it can only be done by raising up for the North American colonist 
some nationality of his own; by elevating these small and unim- 
portant communities into a society having some objects of a national 
importance; and by thus giving their inhabitants a country which 
they will be unwilling to see absorbed even into one more powerful. 
VII. While I believe that the establishment of a comprehensive 
system of government, and of an effectual union between the different 
provinces, would produce this important effect on the general feel- 
ings of their inhabitants, I am inclined to attach very great impor- 
tance to the influence which it would have in giving greater scope and 
satisfaction to the legitimate ambition of the most active aind promi- 
nent persons to be found in them. As long as personal ambition is 
inherent in human nature, and as long as the morahty of every free 
and civilized community encourages its aspirations, it is one great 
business of a wise government to provide for its legitimate develop- 
ment. If, as it is commonly asserted, the disorders of these colonies 



154 Historical Source Book 

have, in great measure, been fomented by the influence of designing 
and ambitious individuals, this evil will best be remedied by allow- 
ing such a scope for the desires of such men as shall direct their ambi- 
tion into the legitimate chance of furthering, and not of thwarting, 
their government. By creating high prizes in a general and responsi- 
ble government, we shall immediately afford the-means of pacif>ing 
the turbulent ambitions, and of employing in worthy and noble 
occupations, the talents which now are only exerted to foment dis- 
order. We must remove from these colonies the cause to which the 
sagacity of Adam Smith traced the alienation of the provinces which 
now form the United States: we must provide some scope for what 
he calls "the importance" of the leading men in the colony, beyond 
what he forcibly terms the present "petty prizes of the paltry raffle 
of colonial faction." A general legislative union would elevate and 
gratify the hopes of able and aspiring men. They would no longer 
look with envy and wonder at the great arena of the bordering federa- 
tion, but see the means of satisfying every legitimate ambition in 
the high offices of the judicature and executive government of their 
own union. 



24. COMMUNIST MANIFESTO, 1848 ^ 

The classic statement of modern socialism is the Com- 
munist Manifesto prepared by Karl Marx and his coworker, 
Friedrich Engels, to serve as a platform for a socialist organi- 
zation which had established itself in London. The document 
was first pubUshed in 1848, shortly before the outbreak of the 
'^ February Revolution" on the Continent. Translations of 
it have since been made into many languages. As Engels 
declared in 1888, it is "undoubtedly the most widespread, the 
most international production of all socialistic literature, the 
common platform acknowledged by millions of workingmen 
from Siberia to California." The work consists of three sec- 
tions, of which the first, or historical section, on the bourgeoisie 
and the proletariat, is here reproduced in its entirety. 

Communist Manifesto, 1848 

I. The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class 
struggles. 

Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild 
master ^ and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood 
in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, 
now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended either in a 
revolutionary reconstitution of society at large or in the common 
ruin of the contending classes. 

In the earlier epochs of history we find almost everywhere a com- 
plicated arrangement of society into various orders, a manifold gra- 
dation of social rank. In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, 
plebeians, slaves; in the Middle Ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild 
masters, journeymen, apprentices, serfs; in almost all of these classes, 
again, subordinate gradations. 

1 Karl Tvlarx and Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, pp. i2-2g. 
Authorized English translation, edited by Friedrich Engels. Chicago, 1888. 
Charles H. Kerr and Company. 

2 Guild master, that is, a full member of a guild. 

15s 



156 Historical Source Book 

The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins j 
of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms. It has 
but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms 
of struggle in place of the old ones. 

Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this 
distinctive feature; it has simplified the class antagonisms. Society 
as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, 
into the two great classes directly facing each other: bourgeoisie and 
proletariat. 

From the serfs of the Middle Ages sprang the chartered burghers 
of the earliest towns. From these burgesses the first elements of the 
bourgeoisie were developed. 

The discovery of America, the rounding of the Cape, opened up 
fresh ground for the rising bourgeoisie. The East Indian and Chinese 
markets, the colonization of America, trade with the colonies, the 
increase in the means of exchange and in commodities generally, gave 
to commerce, to navigation, to industry, an impulse never before 
known, and thereby, to the revolutionary element in the tottering 
feudal society, a rapid development. 

The feudal system of industry, under which industrial production 
was monopolized by close guilds, now no longer sufficed for the grow- 
ing wants of the new markets. The manufacturing system took its 
place. The guild masters were pushed on one side by the manufactur- 
ing middle class; division of labor between the different corporate 
guilds vanished in the face of division of labor in each single workshop. 

Meantime the markets kept ever growing, the demand, ever ris- 
ing. Even manufacture no longer sufficed. Thereupon steam and 
machinery revolutionized industrial production. The place of 
manufacture was taken by the giant, modern industry, the place of 
the industrial middle class, by industrial millionaires, the leaders 
of whole industrial armies, the modern bourgeoisie. 

Modern industry has established the world market for which 
the discovery of America paved the way. This market has given 
an immense development to commerce, to navigation, to communi- 
cation by land. This development has, in its turn, reacted on the 
extension of industry; and in proportion as industry, commerce, 
navigation, railways extended, in the same proportion the bourgeoisie 
developed, increased its capital, and pushed into the background 
every class handed down from the Middle Ages. 

We see, therefore, how the modern bourgeoisie is itself the prod- 



Communist Manifesto 157 

uct of a long course of development, of a series of revolutions in 
the modes of production and of exchange. 

II. Each step in the development of the bourgeoisie was accom- 
panied by a corresponding political advance of that class. An op- 
pressed class under the sway of the feudal nobility, an armed and self- 
governing association in the medieval commune,^ here independent 
urban republic (as in Italy and Germany), there taxable Third Estate 
of the monarchy (as in France) , afterwards, in the period of manufac- 
ture proper, serving either the semi-feudal or the absolute monarchy 
as the counterpoise against the nobility, and, in fact, cornerstone of 
the great monarchies in general, the bourgeoisie has at last, since 
the estabhshment of modern industry and of the world market, con- 
quered for itself in the modern representative state exclusive politi- 
cal sway. The executive of the modern state is but a committee for 
managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie. 

III. The bourgeoisie, historically, has played a most revolu- 
tionary part. 

The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an 
end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn 
asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his "natural 
superiors," and has left remaining no other nexus between man and 
man than naked self-interest, than callous "cash payment." It 
has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor, of chival- 
rous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of 
egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange 
value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, 
has set up that single, unconscionable freedom — free trade. In 
one word, for exploitation veiled by religious and political illusions, 
it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation. 

The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto 
honored and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the 
physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into 
its paid wage earners. 

The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental 
veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation. 

IV. The bourgeoisie has disclosed how it came to pass that the 
brutal display of vigor in the Middle Ages, which reactionists so much 
admire, found its fitting complement in the most slothful indolence. 

^ "Commune" was the name taken, in France, by the rising towns, even before 
the townsmen had secured local self-government as the Third Estate. 



158 Historical Source Book 

It has been the first to show what man's activity can bring about. 
It has accomplished wonders far surpassing Egyptian pyramids, 
Roman aqueducts, and Gothic cathedrals; it has conducted expedi- 
tions that put in the shade all former exoduses of nations and crusades. 

The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing 
the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of produc- 
tion, and with them the whole relations of society. Conservation of 
the old modes of production in unaltered form was, on the contrary, 
the first condition of existence for all earlier industrial classes. Con- 
stant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of 
all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distin- 
guish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen 
relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and 
opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated 
before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is 
holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober 
senses his real conditions of life and his relations with his kind. 

The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases 
the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe. It must nestle 
everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere. 

The bourgeoisie has, through its exploitation of the world market, 
given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in 
every country. To the great chagrin of reactionists, it has drawn 
from under the feet of industry the national ground on which it stood. 
All old-established national industries have been destroyed or are 
daily being destroyed. They are dislodged by new industries, whose 
introduction becomes a life-and-death question for all civilized na- 
tions, by industries that no longer work up indigenous raw material, 
but raw material drawn from the remotest zones; industries whose 
products are consumed, not only at home, but in every quarter of the 
globe. In place of the old wants, satisfied by the productions of the 
country, we find new wants, requiring for their satisfaction the prod- 
ucts of distant lands and climes. In place of the old local and 
national seclusion and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every 
direction, universal interdependence of nations. And as in material, 
so also in intellectual production. The intellectual creations of 
individual nations become common property. National one-sided ness 
and narrow-mindedness become more and more impossible, and from 
the numerous national and local literatures there arises a world 
literature. 



Communist Manifesto 159 

The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of 
production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, 
draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilization. The 
cheap prices of its commodities are the heavy artillery with which it 
batters down all Chinese walls, with which it forces the barbarians' 
intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulate. It compels 
all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of 
production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilization 
into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves. In a word, 
it creates a world after its own image. 

The bourgeoisie has subjected the country to the rule of the 
towns. It has created enormous cities, has greatly increased the 
urban population as compared with the rural, and has thus rescued 
a considerable part of the population from the idiocy of rural life. 
Just as it has made the country dependent on the towns, so it has 
made barbarian and semi-barbarian countries dependent on the 
civilized ones, nations of peasants on nations of bourgeois, the E*ast 
on the West. 

The bourgeoisie keeps more and more doing away with the scat- 
tered state of the population, of the means of production, and of 
property. It has agglomerated population, centralized means of 
production, and has concentrated property in a few hands. The 
necessary consequence of this was political centralization. Inde- 
pendent, or but loosely connected provinces, with separate interests, 
laws, governments, and systems of taxation, became lumped together 
in one nation, with one government, one code of laws, one national 
class interest, one frontier, and one customs tariff. 

The bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one hundred years, has 
created more massive and more colossal productive forces than have 
all preceding generations together. Subjection of nature's forces 
to man, machinery, application of chemistry to industry and agri- 
culture, steam navigation, railways, electric telegraphs, clearing of 
whole continents for cultivation, canalization of rivers, whole popula- 
tions conjured out of the ground — what earlier century had even a 
presentiment that such productive forces slumbered in the lap of 
social labor? 

We see, then, [that] the means of production and of exchange on 
whose foundation the bourgeoisie built itself up were generated in 
feudal society. At a certain stage in the development of these means 
of production and of exchange, the conditions under which feudal 



i6o Historical Source Book 

society produced and exchanged, the feudal organization of agri- 
culture and manufacturing industry, in one word, the feudal rela- 
tions of property, became no longer compatible with the already 
developed productive forces; they became so many fetters. They 
had to burst asunder; they were burst asunder. 

Into their places stepped free competition, accompanied by a 
social and political constitution adapted to it, and by the economical 
and political sway of the bourgeois class. 

V. A similar movement is going on before our own eyes. Modern 
bourgeois society, with its relations of production, of exchange, and 
of property, a society that has conjured up such gigantic means of 
production and of exchange, is like the sorcerer who is no longer able 
to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by 
his spells. For many a decade past the history of industry and com- 
merce is but the history of the revolt of modern productive forces 
against modern conditions of production, against the property rela- 
tions that are the conditions for the existence of the bourgeoisie and 
of its rule. It is enough to mention the commercial crises that by 
their periodical return put on its trial, each time more threateningly, 
the existence of the entire bourgeois society. In these crises a great 
part, not only of the existing products, but also of the previously 
created productive forces, are periodically destroyed. In these crises 
there breaks out an epidemic that, in all earlier epochs, would have 
seemed an absurdity — the epidemic of overproduction. Society 
suddenly finds itself put back into a state of momentary barbarism; 
it appears as if a famine, a universal war of devastation, had cut off 
the supply of every means of subsistence; industry and commerce 
seem to be destroyed; and why? Because there is too much civiliza- 
tion, too much means of subsistence, too much industry, too much 
commerce. The productive forces at the disposal of society no longer 
tend to further the development of the conditions of bourgeois prop- 
erty; on the contrary, they have become too powerful for these con- 
ditions by which they are fettered, and so soon as they overcome 
these fetters, they bring disorder into the whole of bourgeois society, 
endanger the existence of bourgeois property. The conditions of 
bourgeois society are too narrow to comprise the wealth created by 
them. And how does the bourgeoisie get over these crises? On the 
one hand, by enforced destruction of a mass of productive forces; on 
the other, by the conquest of new markets and by the more thorough 
exploitation of the old ones. That is to say, by paving the way for 



Communist Manifesto i6i 

more extensive and more destructive crises, and by diminishing the 
means whereby crises are prevented. 

VI. The weapons with which the bourgeoisie felled feudalism to 
the ground are now turned against the bourgeoisie itself. 

But not only has the bourgeoisie forged the weapons that bring 
death to itself; it has also called into existence the men who are to 
wield those weapons — the modern working class, the proletarians. 

In proportion as the bourgeoisie, i.e., capital, is developed, in the 
same proportion is the proletariat, the modern working class, de- 
veloped, — a class of laborers who live only so long as they find work, 
and who fmd work only so long as their labor increases capital. 
These laborers, who m.ust sell themselves piecemeal, are a commod- 
ity, like every other article of commerce, and are consequently exposed 
to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the 
market. 

Owing to the extensive use of machinery and to division of labor, 
the work of the proletarians has lost all individual character, and, con- 
sequently, all charm for the workman. He becomes an appendage of 
the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and 
most easily acquired knack that is required of him. Hence, the cost 
of production of a workman is restricted, almost entirely, to the means 
of subsi stance that he requires for his maintenance and for the propa- 
gation of his race. But the price of a commodity, and also of labor, 
is equal to its cost of production. In proportion, therefore, as the 
repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage decreases. Nay more, 
in proportion as the use of machinery and division of labor increases, 
in the same proportion the burden of toil also increases, whether by 
prolongation of the working hours, by increase of the work enacted 
in a given time, or by increased speed of the machinery, etc. 

Modern industry has converted the little workshop of the patri- 
archal master into the great factory of the industrial capitalist. Masses 
of laborers, crowded into the factory, are organized like soldiers. As 
privates of the industrial army, they are placed under the command 
of a perfect hierarchy of officers and sergeants. Not only are they 
the slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois State, they are 
daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooker, and, 
above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself. The 
more openly this despotism proclaims gain to be its end and aim, the 
more petty, the more hateful, and the more embittering it is. 

The less the skill and exertion or strength implied in manual labor, 



i62 Historical Source Book 

in other words, the more modern industry becomes developed, the 
more is the labor of men superseded by that of women. Difference of 
age and sex have no longer any distinctive social validity for the 
working class. All are instruments of labor, more or less expensive 
to use, according to their age and sex. 

No sooner is -the exploitation of the laborer by the manufacturer 
so far at an end that he receives his wages in cash, than he is set 
upon by the other portions of the bourgeoisie — the landlord, the 
shopkeeper, the pawnbroker, etc. 

The lower strata of the middle class — the small tradespeople, 
shopkeepers, and retired tradesmen generally, the handicraftsmen 
and peasants — all these sink gradually into the proletariat, partly 
because their diminutive capital does not suffice for the scale on 
which modern industry is carried on and is swamped in the competi- 
tion with the large capitalists, partly because their specialized skill 
is rendered worthless by new methods of production. Thus the pro- 
letariat is recruited from all classes of the population. 

VII. The proletariat goes through various stages of development. 
With its birth begins its struggle with the bourgeoisie. At first the 
contest is carried on by individual laborers, then by the workpeople 
of a factory, then ,by the operatives of one trade, in one locality, 
against the individual bourgeois who directly exploits them. They 
direct their attacks, not against the bourgeois conditions of produc- 
tion, but against the instruments of production themselves; they 
destroy imported wares that compete with their labor, they smash 
to pieces machinery, they set factories ablaze, they seek to restore by 
force the vanished status of the workman of the Middle Ages. 

At this stage the laborers still form an incoherent mass scattered 
over the whole country, and broken up by their mutual competi- 
tion. If anywhere they unite to form more compact bodies, this is 
not yet the consequence of their own active union, but of the union 
of the bourgeoisie, which class, in order to attain its own political 
ends, is compelled to set the whole proletariat in motion, and is 
moreover yet, for a time, able to do so. At this stage, therefore, the 
proletarians do not fight their enemies, but the enemies of their 
enemies, the remnants of absolute monarchy, the landowners, the 
non-industrial bourgeois, the petty bourgeoisie. Thus the whole 
historical movement is concentrated in the hands of the bourgeoisie; 
every victory so obtained is a victory for the bourgeoisie. 

VIII. But with the development of industry the proletariat not 



Communist Manifesto 163 

only increases in number, — it becomes concentrated in greater 
masses, its strength grows, and it feels that strength more. The 
various interests and conditions of Ufe within the ranks of the prole- 
tariat are more and more equalized, in proportion as machinery ob- 
Hterates all distinctions of labor, and nearly everywhere reduces wages 
to the same low level. The growing competition among the bourgeois, 
and the resulting commercial crises, make the wages of the workers 
ever more fluctuating. The unceasing improvement of machinery, 
ever more rapidly developing, makes their livelihood more and more 
precarious; the collisions between individual workmen and indi- 
vidual bourgeois take more and more the character of collisions 
between two classes. Thereupon the workers begin to form com- 
binations (trade unions) against the bourgeois; they club together 
in order to keep up the rate of wages; they found permanent asso- 
ciations in order to make provision beforehand for these occasional 
revolts. Here and there the contest breaks out into riots. 

Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time. 
The real fruit of their battles Hes, not in the immediate result, but 
in the ever expanding union of the workers. This union is helped 
on by the improved m_eans of communication that are created by 
modern industry and that place the workers of different localities in 
contact with one another. It was just this contact that w^as needed 
to centralize the numerous local struggles, all of the same character, 
into one national struggle between classes. But every class struggle 
is a political struggle. And that union, to attain which the burghers 
of the Middle Ages, with their miserable highways, required centuries, 
the modern proletarians, thanks to railways, achieve in a few years. 

This organization of the proletarians into a class, and conse- 
quently into a poKtical party, is continually being upset again by 
the competition between the workers themselves. But it ever rises 
up again, stronger, firmer, mightier. It compels legislative recogni- 
tion of particular interests of the workers, by taking advantage of 
the divisions among the bourgeoisie itself. Thus the Ten Hours Bill ^ 
in England was carried. 

Altogether, collisions between the classes of the old society further, 
in many ways, the course of development of the proletariat. The 
bourgeoisie finds itself involved in a constant battle. At first, with 
the aristocracy; later on, with those portions of the bourgeoisie itself 
whose interests have become antagonistic to the progress of industry; 
^ Passed by Parliament in 1847 and effective the following year. 



164 * Historical Source Book 

at all times, with the bourgeoisie of foreign countries. In all these 
battles it sees itself compelled to appeal to the proletariat, to ask 
for its help, and thus to drag it into the poHtical arena. The 
bourgeoisie itself, therefore, suppHes the proletariat with its own 
elements of political and general education; in other words, it fur- 
nishes the proletariat with weapons for fighting the bourgeoisie. 

Further, as we have already seen, entire sections of the ruhng 
classes are by the advance of industry precipitated into the pro- 
letariat, or are at least threatened in their conditions of existence. 
These also supply the proletariat with fresh elements of enlighten- 
ment and progress. 

Finally, in times when the class struggle nears the decisive hour, 
the process of dissolution going on within the ruhng class, in fact, 
within the whole range of old society, assumes such a violent, glar- 
ing character that a small section of the ruhng class cuts itself adrift 
and joins the revolutionary class, the class that holds the future in 
its hands. Just as, therefore, at an earher period, a section of the 
nobility went over to the bourgeoisie, so now a portion of the bour- 
geoisie goes over to the proletariat, and in particular, a portion of 
the bourgeois ideologists, who have raised themselves to the level 
of comprehending theoretically the historical movements as a whole. 

IX. Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie 
to-day, the proletariat alone is a reaUy revolutionary class. The 
other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of modern indus- 
try; the proletariat is its special and essential product. 

The lower middle class, the small manufacturer, the shopkeeper, 
the artisan, the peasant, all these fight against the bourgeoisie to 
save from extinction their existence as fractions of the middle class. 
They are therefore not revolutionary, but conservative. Nay 
more, they are reactionary, for they try to roll back the wheel of 
history. If by chance they are revolutionary, they are so only in 
view of their impending transfer into the proletariat; they thus 
defend not their present, but their future interests; they desert 
their own standpoint to place themselves at that of the proletariat. 

The "dangerous class," the social scum, that passively rotting 
mass thrown off by the lowest layers of old society, may, here and 
there, be swept into the movement by a proletarian revolution; its 
conditions of life, however, prepare it far more for the part of a 
bribed tool of reactionary intrigue. 

In the conditions of the proletariat, those of old society at large 



Communist Manifesto 165 

are already virtually swamped. The proletarian is without property; 
his relation to his wife and children has no longer anything in com- 
mon with the bourgeois family relations; modern industrial labor, 
modern subjection to capital, the same in England as in France, 
in America as in Germany, has stripped him of every trace of national 
character. Law, morality, religion, are to him so many bourgeois 
prejudices behind which lurk in ambush just as many bourgeois 
interests. 

All the preceding classes that got the upper hand sought to 
fortify their already acquired status by subjecting society at large 
to their conditions of appropriation. The proletarians cannot be- 
come masters of the productive forces of society except by abolish- 
ing their own previous mode of appropriation, and thereby also every 
other previous mode of appropriation. They have nothing of their 
own to secure and to fortify; their mission is to destroy all previous 
securities for, and insurances of, individual property. 

All previous historical movements were movements of minori- 
ties, or in the interest of minorities. The proletarian movement is 
the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, 
in the interest of the immense majority. The proletariat, the lowest 
stratum of our present society, cannot stir, cannot raise itself up, 
without the whole superincumbent strata of ofiticial society being 
sprung into the air. 

Though not in substance, yet in form, the struggle of the pro- 
letariat with the bourgeoisie is at first a national struggle. The 
proletariat of each country must, of course, first of all settle matters 
with its own bourgeoisie. 

In depicting the most general phases of the development of the 
proletariat, we traced the more or less veiled civil war raging within 
existing society up to the point where that war breaks out into open 
revolution, and where the violent overthrow of the bourgeoisie lays 
the foundation for the sway of the proletariat. 

X. Hitherto, every form of society has been based, as we have al- 
ready seen, on the antagonism of oppressing and oppressed classes. 
But in order to oppress a class, certain conditions must be assured 
to it under which it can, at least, continue its slavish existence. The 
serf in the period of serfdom raised himself to membership in the 
commune, just as the petty bourgeois, under the yoke of feudal ab- 
solutism, managed to develop into a bourgeois. The modern laborer, 
on the contrary, instead of rising with the progress of industry, sinks 



1 66 Historical Source Book 

deeper and deeper below the conditions of existence of his own class. 
He becomes a pauper, and pauperism develops more rapidly than 
population and wealth. And here it becomes evident that the bour- 
geoisie is unfit any longer to be the ruling class in society, and to impose 
its conditions of existence upon society as an overriding law. It 
is unfit to rule, because it is incompetent to assure an existence to 
its slave within his slavery, because it cannot help letting him sink 
into such a state that it has to feed him, instead of being fed by 
him. Society can no longer five under this bourgeoisie; in other 
words, its existence is no longer compatible with society. 

The essential condition for the existence and for the sway of 
the bourgeois class is the formation and augmentation of capital; 
the condition for capital is wage labor. Wage labor rests exclu- 
sively on competition between the laborers. The advance of indus- 
try, whose involuntary promoter is the bourgeoisie, replaces the 
isolation of the laborers due to competition by their involuntary 
combination due to association. The development of modern indus- 
try, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which 
the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bour- 
geoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own gravediggers. Its 
fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable. 



25. DECLARATION OF PARIS, 1856 ^ 

The pienipotentiaries of Great Britain, Austria, France, 
Prussia, Russia, Sardinia, and Turkey, who met in conference 
after the Crimean War, not only attempted a new solution 
of the Eastern Question, but also took occasion to settle a 
number of long-disputed questions relating to the protection 
of commerce in time of war. The Declaration, to which they 
affixed their signatures at this time, was subsequently accepted 
by forty countries unrepresented at the Congress of Paris, 
thus becoming a recognized statute of international law. The 
only important power to withhold its consent was the United 
States, which refused to sign unless enemy property (except 
contraband of war) was also exempted from capture at sea. 
The United States, however, has strictly conformed with all 
the articles of the Declaration ever since their promulgation. 

Declaration of Paris, 1856 

The plenipotentiaries who signed the Treaty of Paris of the 30th 
of March, 1S56, assembled in conference, considering, 

That maritime law, in time of war, has long been the subject of 
deplorable disputes; 

That the uncertainty of the law and of the duties in such a matter 
gives rise to differences of opinion between neutrals and belligerents, 
which may occasion serious difficulties and even conflicts; 

That it is consequently advantageous to establish a uniform doc- 
trine on so important a point; 

That the plenipotentiaries assembled in Congress at Paris can- 
not better respond to the intentions by whicPf their governments 
are animated than by seeking to introduce into international rela- 
tions fixed principles in this respect; 

The above-mentioned plenipotentiaries, being duly authorized, 
resolved to concert among themselves as to the means of attaining 

1 Edward Hertslet, The Map of Europe by Treaty, vol. ii, pp. 1 282-1 283. Lon- 
don, 1875-1891. 

167 



1 68 Historical Source Book 

this object; and, having come to an agreement, have adopted the 
following solemn declaration: 

I. Privateering is, and remains, abolished; 

II. The neutral flag covers enemy's goods, with the exception 
of contraband of war; 

III. Neutral goods, with the exception of contraband of war, 
are not Hable to capture under the enemy's flag; 

IV. Blockades, in order to be binding, must be effective, that is 
to say, maintained by a force sufficient really to prevent access to 
the coast of the enemy. 

The governments of the undersigned plenipotentiaries engage to 
bring the present declaration to the knowledge of the states which 
have not taken part in the Congress of Paris, and to invite them 
to accede to it. 

Convinced that the maxims which they now proclaim cannot 
but be received with gratitude by the whole world, the undersigned 
plenipotentiaries doubt not that the efforts of their governments to 
obtain the general adoption thereof will be crowned w^th full success. 

The present declaration is not, and shall not be binding, except 
between those powers who have acceded, or shall accede, to it. 

Done at Paris, the i6th of April, 1856. 



1 



26. LINCOLN'S FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 1861 ^ 

After the election of Abraham Lincoln in i860, seven 
states seceded from the Union and organized the Southern 
Confederacy. Other states stood on the verge of secession. 
These circumstances made the inaugural address of the new 
president a momentous document. It announced his un- 
alterable purpose to preserve, protect, and defend the govern- 
ment. Lincoln's arguments to show that the Union is per- 
petual, that it is older than the Constitution, and that ''no 
state upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the 
Union" deserve special attention from the student of American 
federalism. 

I 

( Lincoln's First Inaugural Address, 1861 

I Fellow Citizens of the United States 

I. In comphance with a custom as old as the government itself, 

I I appear before you to address you briefly, and to take in your pres- 
ience the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States 
to be taken by the President "before he enters on the execution of his 
office." 

; I do not consider it necessary, at present, for me to discuss those 
^matters of administration about which there is no special anxiety or 
icxcitement. 

I II. Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the southern 
jstates that, by the accession of a Republican administration, their 
•property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. 
There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. 
(Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while 
.existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all 
jthe published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but 
jquote from one of those speeches, when I declare that "I have no 
(Purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of 

* J. D. Richardson, A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 
78Q-i7Q7y vol. vi, pp. 5-12. Washington, 1896-1899. 

169 



lyo Historical Source Book 

slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right 
to do so; and I have no inclination to do so." Those who nominated 
and elected me did so with the full knowledge that I had made this 
and many similar declarations, and had never recanted them. 
And, more than this, they placed in the platform for my acceptance, 
and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolu- 
tion which I now read: 

^^ Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the 
states, and especially the right of each state to order and control 
its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclu- 
sively, is essential to that balance of povrer on which the perfection 
and endurance of our political fabric depend; and we denounce the 
lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any state or territory, 
no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes." 

I now reiterate these sentiments; and in doing so I only press 
upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the 
case is susceptible that the property, peace, and security of no sec- 
tion are to be in anyivise endangered by the now incoming adminis- 
tTation. I add, too, that all the protection which, consistently with 
the Constitution and the laws, can be given will be cheerfully given 
to all the states when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause — ■ 
as cheerfully to one section as to another. 

III. There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugi- 
tives from service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly written 
in the Constitution as any other of its provisions: 

"No person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws 
thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or- 
regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but 
shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or 
labor may be due." ^ 

It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended by 
those who made it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves; 
and the intention of the lawgiver is the law. All members of Con- 
gress swear their support to the whole Constitution — to this pro- 
vision as much as to any other. To the proposition, then, that slaves 
whose cases come within the terms of this clause " shall be delivered 
up," their oaths are unanimous. Now, if they would make the effort 
in good temper, could they not, with nearly equal unanimity, frame 
and pass a law by means of which to keep good that unanimous oath? 

* Article iv, Section 2. 



Lincoln's First Inaugural Address 171 

There is some difference of opinion whether this clause should be 
enforced by national or by state authority; but surely that difference 
is not a very material one. If the slave is to be surrendered, it can be 
of but little consequence to him or to others by which authority it is 
done. And should any one, in any case, be content that his oath 
shall go unkept on a merely unsubstantial controversy as to how it 
shall be kept? 

Again, in any law upon this subject, ought not all the safeguards 
of liberty known in civilized and humane jurisprudence to be intro- 
duced, so that a free man be not, in any case, surrendered as a slave? 
And might it not be well at the same time to provide by law for the 
enforcement of that clause in the Constitution which guarantees 
that "the citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and 
immunities of citizens in the several states?" 

I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations and 
with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any hyper- 
critical rules; and while 1 do not choose now to specify particular 
acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will 
be much safer for all, both in official and private stations, to conform 
to and abide by all tfiese acts which stand unrepealed, than to vio- 
late any of them, trusting to find impunity in having them held to 
be unconstitutional. 

IV. It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a 
President under our National Constitution. During that period fifteen 
different and distinguished citizens have in succession administered 
the executive branch of the government. They have conducted it 
through many perils, and generally with great success. Yet, with 
all this scope for precedent, I now enter upon the same task, for 
the brief constitutional term of four years, under great and peculiar 
difficulties. A disruption of the federal Union, heretofore only 
menaced, is now formidably attempted. 

I hold that in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitu- 
tion the Union of these states is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, 
if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. 
It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision.in 
its organic law for its own term'nation. Continue to execute all 
the express provisions of our national Constitution, and the Union 
will endure forever, it being impossible to dest oy it except by some 
action not provided for in the instrument itself. 

Again, if the United ^States be not a government proper, but an 



172 Historical Source Book 

association of states in the nature of contract merely, can it, as a 
contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who made 
it? One party to a contract may violate it — break it, so to speak; 
but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it? 

Descending from these general principles, we find the proposition 
that in legal contemplation the Union is perpetual confirmed by the 
history of the Union itself. The Union is much older than the Con- 
stitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 
1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the 
then thirteen states expressly plighted and engaged that it should 
be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778. And 
finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and estab- 
lishing the Constitution was "to form a more perfect Union." But 
if destruction of the Union by one or by a part only of the states be 
lawfully possible, the Union is less perfect than before the Constitu- 
tion, having lost the vital element of perpetuity. 

It follows from these views that no state, upon its own mere 
motion, can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordi- 
nances to that effect are legally void; and that acts of violence within 
any state or states, against the authority of the United States, are 
insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances. 

I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and the 
laws, the Union is unbroken, and, to the extent of my abihty, I shall 
take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that 
the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the states. 
Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part, and I shall 
perform it so far as practicable, unless my rightful masters, the 
American people, shall withhold the requisite means, or in some 
authoritative manner direct the contrary. I trust this will not be 
regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union 
that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself. 

In doing this there needs be no bloodshed or violence, and there 
shall be none unless it is forced upon the national authority. The 
power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess 
the property and places belonging to the government, and to collect 
the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these 
objects there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among 
the people anywhere. Where hostility to the United States in any 
interior locality shall be so great and universal as to prevent 



Lincoln's First Inaugural Address 173 

competent resident citizens from holding the federal offices, there 
will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among the people for 
that object. While the strict legal right may exist in the government 
to enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do so would be 
so irritating and so nearly impracticable withal, that I deem it better 
to forego, for the time, the uses of such offices. 

The mails, unless repelled, will be continued to be furnished in 
all parts of the Union. So far as possible, the people everywhere 
shall have that sense of perfect security which is most favorable 
to calm thought and reflection. The course here indicated will be 
followed, unless current events and experience shall show a modifica- 
tion or change to be proper; and in every case and exigency my 
best discretion will be exercised, according to circumstances actually 
existing, and with a view and a hope of a peaceful solution of the 
national troubles and the restoration of fraternal sympathies and 
affections. 

V. That there are persons, in one section or another, who seek to 
destroy the Union at all events, and are glad of any pretext to do it, 
I wiU neither affirm or deny. But if there be such, T need address no 
word to them. To those, however, who really love the Union, may 
I not speak? 

Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our 
national fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, 
would it not be wise to ascertain precisely why we do it? Will you 
hazard so desperate a step, while there is any possibility that any 
portion of the ills you fly from have no real existence? Will you, 
while the certain ills you fly to are greater than all the real ones you 
fly from, will you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake? 

All profess to be content in the Union if all constitutional rights 
can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right, plainly written 
in the Constitution, has been denied? I think not. Happily the 
human mind is so constituted that no party can reach to the audacity 
of doing this. Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a 
plainly written provision of the Constitution has ever been denied. 
If, by the mere force of numbers, a majority should deprive a minor- 
ity of any clearly written constitutional right, it might, in a moral 
point of view, justify revolution; certainly would if such right were 
a vital one. But such is not our case. All the vital rights of minori- 
ties and of individuals are so plainly assured to them by affirmations 
and negations, guarantees and prohibitions in the Constitution that 



174 Historical Source Book 

controversies never arise concerning them. But no organic law can 
ever be framed with a provision specifically applicable to every ques- 
tion which may occur in practical administration. No foresight can 
anticipate, nor any document of reasonable length contain, express 
provisions for all possible questions. Shall fugitives from labor be 
surrendered by national or by state authority? The Constitution 
does not expressly say. May Congress prohibit slavery in the terri- 
tories? The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress 
protect slavery in the territories? The Constitution does not expressly 
say. 

From questions of this class spring all our constitutional con- 
troversies, and we divide upon them into majorities and minorities. 
If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the govern- 
ment must cease. There is no alternative, for continuing the govern- 
ment is acquiescence on one side or the other. If a minority in such 
case will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent which, 
in turn, will divide and ruin them, for a minority of their own will 
secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by 
such a minority. For instance, why may not any portion of a new 
Confederacy, a year or two hence, arbitrarily secede again, precisely 
as portions of the present Union now claim to secede from it? All who 
cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated to the exact 
temper of doing this. 

Is there such perfect identity of interests among the states to 
compose a new Union as to produce harmony only, and prevent 
renewed secession? Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence 
of anarchy. A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks 
and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes 
of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a 
free people. Whoever rejects it, does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or 
despotism. Unanimity is impossible. The rule of a minority, as a 
permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting 
the majority principle, anarchy or despotism, in some form, is all 
that is left. 

I do not forget the position assumed by some that constitutional 
questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court; nor do I deny 
that such decisions must be binding in any case upon the parties to 
a suit as to the object of that suit, while they are also entitled to 
very high respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all other 
departments of the government. '^And while it is obviously possible 



Lincoln's First Inaugural Address 175 

that such decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil 
effect following it, being limited to that particular case, with the 
chance that it may be overruled and never become a precedent for 
other cases, can better be borne than could the evils of a different 
practice. At the same time, the candid citizen must confess that if 
the policy of the government upon vital questions affecting the 
v/hole people is to be irrevocably fixed by the decisions of the Su- 
preme Court, the instant they are made in ordinary litigation be- 
tween parties in personal actions, the people will have ceased to 
be their own masters, having to that extent practically resigned their 
government mto the hands of that eminent tribunal. Nor is there 
in this view any assault upon the court or the judges. It is a duty, 
from which they may not shrink, to decide cases properly brought 
before them; and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their 
decisions to political purposes. 

One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to 
be extended, while the other believes it is ivrong and ought not to 
be extended. This is the only substantial dispute. The fugitive-slave 
clause of the Constitution and the law for the suppression of the 
foreign slave trade are each as well enforced, perhaps, as any law can 
ever be in a community where the moral sense of the people imper- 
fectly supports the law itself. The great body of the people abide 
by the dry legal obligation in both cases, and a few break over in 
each. This, I think, cannot be perfectly cured, and it would be worse 
in both cases after the separation of the sections than before. The 
foreign slave trade, now imperfectly suppressed, would be ultimately 
revived without restriction in one section; while fugitive slaves, 
now only partially surrendered, would not be surrendered at all by 
the other. 

Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our 
respective sections from each other nor build an impassible wall be- 
tween them. A husband and wife may be divorced and go out of 
the presence and beyond the reach of each other, but the different 
parts of our country cannot do this. They cannot but remain face 
to face; and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue 
between them. Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse more 
advantageous or more satisfactory after separation than before? 
Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can 
treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can 
among friends? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always; 



176 Historical Source Book 

and when, after much loss on both sides and no gain on either, you 
cease fighting, the identical old questions, as to terms of intercourse, 
are again upon you. 

VI. This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who 
inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing govern- 
ment, they can exercise their constitutional right of anjending it or 
their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I cannot be 
ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are 
desirous of having the national Constitution amended. While I 
make no recommendation of amendments, I fully recognize the right- 
ful authority of the people over the whole subject, to be exercised in 
either of the modes prescribed in the instrument itself; and I should, 
under existing circumstances, favor rather than oppose a fair oppor- 
tunity being afforded the people to act upon it. I will venture to 
add that to me the convention mode seems preferable, in that it 
allows amendments to originate with the people themselves, instead 
of only permitting them to take or reject propositions originated by 
others, not especially chosen for the purpose, and which might not 
be precisely such as they would wish either to accept or refuse. I 
understand that a proposed amendment to the Constitution — 
which amendment, however, I have not seen — has passed Congress, 
to the effect that the federal government shall never interfere with the 
domestic institutions of the states, including that of persons held to 
service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from 
my purpose not to speak of particular amendments so far as to say 
that, holding such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, 
I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable. 

VII. The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority from the 
people, and they have conferred none upon him to fix the terms for the 
separation of the states. The people themselves can do this also 
if they choose, but the Executive, as such, has nothing to do with 
it. His duty is to administer the present government as it came to 
his hands, and to transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor. 

Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate 
justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? 
In our present differences is either party without faith of being in 
the right? If the almighty Ruler of nations, with His eternal truth 
and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, 
that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of 
this great tribunal of the American people. 



Lincoln's First Inaugural Address 177 

By the frame of the government under which we h've this same 
people have wisely given their public servants but little power for 
mischief, and have with equal wisdom provided for the return of 
*that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the 
people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any 
extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the govern- 
ment in the short space of four years. 

My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this 
whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If 
there be an object to hurry any of you in hot haste to a step which 
you would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by 
taking time; but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of 
you as are now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution unimpaired, 
and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; 
while the new administration will have no immediate power, if it 
would, to change either. If it were admitted that you who are 
dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there still is no single 
reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, 
and a firm rehance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored 
land are still competent to adjust, in the best v/ay, all our present 
difficulty. 

In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in 
mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not 
assail you. Ynu can have no conflict without being yourselves the 
aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the 
government, while / shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, 
protect, and defend it." 

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must 
not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not 
break our bonds of affection. The mystic cords of memory, stretch- 
ing from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart 
and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus 
of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the 
better angels of our nature. 



27. GETTYSBURG ADDRESS, 1863 ^ 

The National Military Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsyl- 
vania, was dedicated on November 19, 1863, as a memorial of 
the three-days' battle there the preceding July. Edward 
Everett made the formal oration upon this occasion. President 
Lincoln then spoke briefly. His address, perfect in form and 
elevated in feeling, has come to be universally recognized as 
a classic in American literature. It is also the best short expo- 
sition of the spirit of American democracy. 

Gettysburg Address, 1863 

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this 
continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the 
proposition that all men are created equal. 

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that 
nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. 
We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to 
dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those 
who here gave their lives that that nation might hve. It is altogether 
fitting and proper that we should do this. 

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we cannot conse- 
crate — we cannot hallow — this ground. The brave men, living 
and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our 
poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long 
remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did 
here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the un- 
finished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly 
advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task 
remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take in- 
creased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full 
measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead 
shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have 
a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the 
people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. 

1 Abraham Lincoln, Complete Works, vol. ii, p. 439. Edited by J. G. Nicolay 
and John Hay. New York, 1894. Century Company. 

178 



28. PEACE CIRCULAR OF NICHOLAS II, 1898 ^ 

On August 24, 1S98, the diplomatic representatives attending 
the weekly reception at the court of St. Petersburg wer^ handed 
the circular note reproduced below. Though signed by Count 
Muraviev, Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, it expressed 
the aspirations for universal peace of his royal master and led 
to the convocation of the First Hague Conference in the fol- 
lowing year. 

Peace Circular or Nicholas II, 1898 

.1. The maintenance of general peace and a possible reduction of 
the excessive armaments which weigh upon all nations present 
themselves, in the existing condition of the whole world, as the ideal 
toward which the endeavors of all governments should be directed. 

The humanitarian and magnanimous views of his Majesty the 
emperor, my august master, are in perfect accord with this sentiment. 

In the conviction that this lofty aim is in conformity with the 
most essential interests and the legitimate aspirations of all powers, 
the imperial government believes that the present moment would 
be very favorable for seeking, by means of international discussion, 
the most effective means of insuring to all peoples the benefits of a 
real and lasting peace, and above all of limiting the progressive de- 
velopment of existing armaments. 

11. In the course of the last twenty years the longings for a general 
state of peace have become especially pronounced in the consciences 
of civilized nations. The preservation of peace has been put forward 
as the object of international policy. In its name great states have 
formed powerful alliances; and for the better guaranty of peace 
they have developed their mihtary forces to proportions hitherto 
unknown and still continue to increase them without hesitating at 
any sacrifice. 

All these efforts, nevertheless, have not yet led to the beneficent 
results of the desired pacification. 

1 J. B. Scott, The Hague Conventions and Declarations of i8qq and IQ07, 
pp. xv-xvi. Second Edition. New York, 1915. Oxford University Press. 

179 



i8o Historical Source Book 

The ever increasing financial charges strike and paralyze public 
prosperity at its source; the intellectual and physical strength of the 
nations, their labor and capital, are for the most part diverted from 
their natural application and unproductively consumed; hundreds 
of millions are spent in acquiring terrible engines of destruction, which, 
though to-day regarded as the last word of science, are destined to- 
morrow to lose all value, in consequence of some fresh discovery in the 
same field. National culture, economic progress, and the produc- 
tion of wealth are either paralyzed or perverted in their development. 

Moreover, in proportion as the armaments of each power increase, 
so do they less and less attain the object aimed at by the govern- 
ments. Economic crises, due in great part to the system of amassing 
armaments to the point of exhaustion, and the continual danger which 
lies in this accumulation of war material, are transforming the armed 
peace of our days into a crushing burden which the peoples have 
more and more difficulty in bearing. It appears evident, then, that 
if this state of affairs be prolonged, it will inevitably lead to the very 
cataclysm which it is desired to avert, and the impending horrors of 
which are fearful to every human thought. 

In checking these increasing armaments and in seeking the means 
of averting the calamities which threaten the entire world lies the 
supreme duty to-day resting upon all states. 

III. Imbued with this idea, his Majesty has been pleased to com- 
mand me to propose to all the governments which have accredited 
representatives at the imperial court the holding of a conference to 
consider this grave problem. 

This conference would be, by the help of God, a happy presage 
for the century about to open. It would converge into a single 
powerful force the efforts of all the states which sincerely v/ish the 
great conception of universal peace to triumph over the elements 
of disturbance and discord. It would at the same time cement their 
agreement by a solemn avowal of the principles of equity and law, 
upon which repose the security of states and the welfare of peoples. 



29. FINAL ACT OF THE FIRST HAGUE PEACE CONFER- 
ENCE, 1899 1 

The First Peace Conference met at The Hague on the tsar's 
birthday, May i8, i8gg, and adjourned on July 29. Twenty- 
six states were represented. The United States and Mexico 
were the only American countries to take part in the proceedings. 
The conference could not agree to limit armaments or military 
expenditures, owing to the opposition of the great powers, 
particularly Germany. Nevertheless, agreements were reached 
relating to the pacific settlement of international disputes and 
to the regulation of v/arfare by land and sea. These are sum- 
marized in the Final Act here reproduced. Work still more 
important was accomplished by the Second Peace Conference 
of 1907, in which forty-four states, or practically all the civi- 
lized world, had representation. The conventions of the pre- 
ceding conference were revised, new ones were adopted, and 
a judicial arbitration court, commonly known as the Hague 
Tribunal, was created. No subsequent conference has assembled, 
owing to the World War, but the functions of such an organi- 
zation will henceforth be assumed by the League of Nations. 

Final Act of the First Hague Peace 
Conference, 1899 

The International Peace Conference, convoked in the best in- 
terests of humanity by his Majesty the Emperor of All the Russias, 
assembled, on the invitation of the government of her Majesty the 
Queen of the Netherlands, in the Royal House in the Wood at The 
Hague, on May 18, iSgq.'^ 

In a series of meetings, between May 18 and July 29, 1899, in which 
the constant desire of the delegates above mentioned has been to real- 

1 J. B. Scott, The Hague Conventions and Declarations of i8qq and 1907, pp. i, 
25-31. Second Edition. New York, 1915. Oxford University Press. 

2 Here follows the long list of delegates to the Conference, 

181 



i82 Historical Source Book 



s, I 



ize, in the fullest manner possible, the generous views of the august 
initiator of the conference and the intentions of their governmeats 
the conference has agreed, for submission for signature by the pleni- 
potentiaries, on the text of the conventions and declarations enu- 
merated below and annexed to the present act: 

I. Convention for the peaceful adjustment of international 
differences. 

II. Convention regarding the laws and customs of war on land. 

III. Convention for the adaptation to maritime warfare of the 
principles of the Geneva Convention of August 22, 1864. 

IV. Three declarations: 

1. To prohibit the launching of projectiles and explosives 
from balloons or by other similar new methods. 

2. To prohibit the use of projectiles, the only object of which 
is the diffusion of asphyxiating or deleterious gases. 

3. To prohibit the use of bullets which expand or flatten 
easily in the human body, such as bullets with a hard envelope, 
of which the envelope does not entirely cover the core, or is 
pierced with incisions. 

These conventions and declarations shall form so many separate 
acts. These acts shall be dated this day, and may be signed up to 
December 31, 1899, by the plenipotentiaries of the powers represented 
at the International Peace Conference at The Hague. 

Guided by the same sentiments, the conference has adopted 
unanimously the following resolution: 

"The conference is of opinion that the restriction of military 
charges, which are at present a heavy burden on the world, is ex- 
tremely desirable for the increase of the material and moral welfare 
of mankind." 

It has, besides, formulated the following wishes: 

1. The conference, taking into consideration the preliminary 
steps taken by the Swiss federal government for the revision of 
the Geneva Convention, expresses the wish that steps may be shortly 
taken for the assembly of a special conference having for its object 
the revision of that convention. 

This wish was voted unanimously. 

2. The conference expresses the wish that the questions of the 
rights and duties of neutrals may be inserted in the program of a 
conference in the near future. 

3. The conference expresses the wish that the questions with 



I 



" 

The First Hague Peace Conference 183 

regard to rifles and naval guns, as considered by it, may be studied 
by the governments, with the object of coming to an agreement 
respecting the employment of new types and cahbers. 

4. The conference expresses the wish that the governments, tak- 
ing into consideration the proposals made at the conference, may 
examine the possibility of an agreement as to the limitation of armed 
forces by land and sea, and of war budgets. 

5. The conference expresses the wish that the proposal, which 
contemplates the declaration of the inviolability of private property 
in naval warfare, may be referred to a subsequent conference for 
consideration. 

6. The conference expresses the wish that the proposal to settle 
the question of the bombardment of ports, towns, and villages by a 
naval force may be referred to a subsequent conference for considera- 
tion. 

The last five wishes were voted unanimously, saving some absten- 
tions. 

In faith of which, the plenipotentiaries have signed the present 
act and have affixed their seals thereto. 

Done at The Hague, July 29, 1899, in one copy only, which shall 
be deposited in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and of which copies, 
duly certified, shall be delivered to all the powers represented at the 
conference. 



30. ROOSEVELT'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 1905 ^ 

The theme of President Roosevelt's brief inaugural address, 
delivered at Washington, March 4, 1905, was America's re- 
sponsibiHties as a free, self-governing nation. 

Roosevelt's Inaugural Address, 1905 
My Fellow Citizens 

I. No people on earth have more cause to be thankful than ours, 
and this is said reverently, in no spirit of boastfulness in our own 
strength, but with gratitude to the Giver of Good, who has blessed 
us with the conditions which have enabled us to achieve so large a 
measure of well-being and of happiness. To us as a people it has 
been granted to lay the foundations of our national life in a new con- 
tinent. We are the heirs of the^ages, and yet we have had to pay 
few of the penalties which in old countries are exacted by the dead 
hand of a bygone civilization. We have not been obliged to fight for 
our existence against any alien race; and yet our life has called for 
the vigor and effort without which the manlier and hardier virtues 
wither away. Under such conditions it would be our own fault if 
we failed; and the success which we have had in the past, the success 
which we confidently believe the future will bring, should cause in 
us no f eehng of vainglory, but rather a deep and abiding realization of 
all which life has offered us; a full acknowledgment of the responsi- 
bility which is ours; and a fixed determination to show that under a 
free government a mighty people can thrive best, aHke as regards 
the things of the body and the things of the soul. 

II. Much has been given to us, and much will rightfully be ex- 
pected from us. We have duties to others and duties to ourselves; 
and we can shirk neither. We have become a great nation, forced 
by the fact of its greatness into relations with the other nations of 
the earth ; and we must behave as beseems a people with such responsi- 
bilities. Toward all other nations, large and small, our attitude must 
be one of cordial and sincere friendship. We must show, not only in 
our words, but in our deeds, that we are earnestly desirous of securing 

^ Congressional Record, vol. xl, part i, pp. 2-3. Washington, 1906. 

184 



Roosevelt's Inaugural Address 185 

their good-will by acting toward them in a spirit of just and generous 
recognition of all their rights. But justice and generosity in a nation, 
as in an individual, count most when shown, not by the weak, but 
by the strong. While ever careful to refrain from wronging others, 
we must be no less insistent that we are not wronged ourselves. We 
wish peace; but we wish the peace of justice, the peace of righteous- 
ness. We wish it because we think it is right and not because we 
are afraid. No weak nation that acts manfully and justly should 
ever have cause to fear us, and no strong power should ever be able 
to single us out as a subject for insolent aggression. 

III. Our relations with the other powers of the world are import- 
ant; but still more important are our relations among ourselves. 
Such growth in wealth, in population, and in power as this nation has 
seen during the century and a quarter of its national life is inevitably 
accompanied by a like growth in the problems which are ever before 
every nation that rises to greatness. Power invariably means both 

I responsibility and danger. Our forefathers faced certain perils which 
I we have outgrown. We now face other perils, the very existence of 
, which it was impossible that they should foresee. Modern life is both 
complex and intense, and the tremendous changes wrought by the 
I extraordinary industrial development of the last half-century are 
j felt in every fiber of our social and political being. Never before 
have men tried so vast and formidable an experiment as that of 
I administering the affairs of a continent under the form of a democratic 
republic. The conditions which have told for our marvelous material 
I well-being, which have developed to a very high degree our energy, 
I self-reliance, and individual initiative, have also brought the care 
j and anxiety inseparable from the accumulation of great wealth in 
I industrial centers. Upon the success of our experiment much depends; 
not only as regards our own welfare, but as regards the welfare of 
mankind. If we fail, the cause of free self-government throughout 
[ the world will rock to its foundations; and therefore our responsi- 
bility is heavy, to ourselves, to the world as it is to-day, and to the 
generations yet unborn. There is no good reason why we should 
fear the future, but there is every reason why we should face it seri- 
ously, neither hiding from ourselves the gravity of the problems 
before us nor fearing to approach these problems with the unbending, 
unflinching purpose to solve them aright. 

IV. Yet, after all, though the problems are new, though the tasks 
set before us differ from the tasks set before our fathers who founded 



1 86 Historical Source Book 

and preserved this republic, the spirit in which these tasks must be j 
undertaken and these problems faced, if our duty is to be well done, I 
remains essentially unchanged. We know that self-government is^ 
difficult. We know that no people needs such high traits of character 
as that people which seeks to govern its affairs aright through the 
freely expressed will of the freemen who compose it. But we have 
faith that we shall not prove false to the memories of the men of 
the mighty past. They did their work, they left us the splendid 
heritage we now enjoy. We in our turn have an assured confidence 
that we shall be able to leave this heritage unwasted and enlarged 
to our children and our children's children. To do so we must show, 
not merely in great crises, but in the everyday affairs of life, the 
qualities of practical intelligence, of courage, of hardihood and en- 
durance, and above all the power of devotion to a lofty ideal, which 
made great the men who founded this republic in the days of Wash- 
ington, which made great the men who preserved this repubhc in 
the days of Abraham Lincoln. 



31. WILSON'S FOURTEEN POINTS, 1918 i 

The issues at stake in the World War became clearer as 
the struggle proceeded. When, on August i, 1917, Pope Bene- 
dict XV proposed that the belligerent countries negotiate with 
one another on the basis of conditions existing before 19 14 — 
the status quo ante — President Wilson answered, for both the 
United States and the Allies, that no acceptable terms could be 
arranged with the autocratic and irresponsible Hohenzollern 
government. On December 2, 191 7, the Bolshevist envoys 
at Brest-Litovsk brought forward their own proposals for end- 
ing the war through a congress of delegates chosen by the 
parliament of each country. Then on January 5, 19 18, Mr. 
Lloyd George, in a speech before the Trade Union Conference 
at London, set forth more specifically than ever before the 
war aims of the Allies. Permanent peace could not come, 
the British premier declared, until three conditions were ful- 
filled: first, the sanctity of treaties must be reestablished; 
second, territorial settlements must be based on the right 
of self-determination of nationalities, or the consent of the 
governed; and third, some international organization must be 
created to limit the burden of armaments and diminish the 
probability of future conflicts. This speech was followed 
on January 8 by President Wilson's address to Congress, with 
its Fourteen Points of a program for a just and lasting settle- 
ment. While the President spoke only for the United States, 
his statements, with some reservations, were accepted in Great 
Britain, France, and Italy as embodying the purposes of the 
AlHes in the W^orld War. 

Wilson's Fourteen Points, 1918 

The program of the world's peace, therefore, is our program, and 
that program, the only possible program, as we see it, is this: 
^ Congressional Record, vol. Ivi, part i, p. 691. Washington, 1918. 

187 



1 88 Historical Source Book 

I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there 
shall be no private international understandings of any kind, but 
diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view. 

II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside terri- 
torial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be 
closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement 
of international covenants. 

III. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the 
establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations 
consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance. 

IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments 
will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety. 

V. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment 
of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle 
that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interest of 
the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equit- 
able claims of the government whose title is to be determined. 

VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settle- 
ment of all questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and 
freest cooperation of the other nations of the world in obtaining for 
her an unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the inde- 
pendent determination of her own political development and na- 
tional policy and assure her of a sincere welcome into the society of 
free nations under institutions of her own choosing; and, more than 
a welcome, assistance also of every kind that she may need and may 
herself desire. The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations 
in the months to come will be the acid test of their good will, of their 
comprehension of her needs as distinguished from their own interests, 
and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy. 

VII. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and 
restored, without any attempt to limit the sovereignty which she 
enjoys in common with all other free nations. No other single act 
will serve as this will serve to restore confidence among the nations 
in the laws which they have themselves set and determined for the 
government of their relations with one another. Without this heal- 
ing act the whole structure and validity of international law is for- 
ever impaired. 

VIII. All French territory should be freed and the invaded por- 
tions restored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in 
the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the 



Wilson's Fourteen Points 189 

world for nearly fifty years, should be righted, in order that peace 
may once more be made secure in the interest of all. 

IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be affected 
along clearly recognizable lines of nationality. 

X. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the 
nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded 
the freest opportunity of autonomous development. 

XI. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated; 
occupied territories restored; Serbia accorded free and secure access 
to the sea; and the relations of the several Balkan states to one 
another determined by friendly counsel along historically established 
lines of allegiance and nationality; and international guarantees of 
the political and economic independence and territorial integrity of 
the several Balkan states should be entered into. 

XII. The Turkish portions of the present Ottoman Empire 
should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities 
which are now under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted 
security of life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of auton- 
omous development; and the Dardanelles should be permanently 
opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations 
under international guarantees. 

XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected which 
should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish popu- 
lations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, 
and whose political and economic independence and territorial integ- 
rity should be guaranteed by international covenant. 

XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under specific 
covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political 
independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike. 

In regard to these essential rectifications of wrong and assertions 
of right we feel ourselves to be intimate partners of all the govern- 
ments and the peoples associated together against the imperialists. 
We cannot be separated in interest or divided in purpose. We stand 
together until the end. 

For such arrangements and covenants we are willing to fight and 
to continue to fight until they are achieved; but only because we wish 
the right to prevail and desire a just and stable peace such as can 
be secured only by removing the chief provocations to war, which 
this program does remove. 



32. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF THE 
CZECHO-SLOVAK NATION, 1918 ' 

The Czecho-Slovaks, comprising the Czechs of Bohemia, 
Moravia, and Austrian Silesia and the Slovaks of northern 
Hungary, found in the World War an opportunity to strike for 
freedom and national existence. Their leaders in Allied coun- 
tries formed the Czecho-Slovak National Council, with head- 
quarters at Paris. The President of the Council, Professor 
Thomas G. Masaryk, remained in Washington, where he was 
in close touch with President Wilson after the United States 
had recognized the Czecho-Slovaks on September 2, 1918. 
During the following month (October 18), the Provisional Gov- 
ernment issued a formal Declaration of Independence. This 
stirring document breathes the spirit of democracy in every 
paragraph. 

Declaration or Independence of the Czecho- 
slovak Nation, 19 18 

I. At this grave moment, when the Hohenzollerns are offering 
peace in order to stop the victorious advance of the allied armies and 
to prevent the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary and Turkey, and 
when the Hapsburgs are promising the federalization of the empire 
and autonomy to the dissatisfied nationalities committed to their 
rule, we, the Czecho-Slovak National Council, recognized by the 
Allied and American governments as the Provisional Government 
of the Czecho-Slovak state and nation, in complete accord with the 
declaration of the Czech deputies made in Prague on January 6, 
1918, and realizing that federalization and, still more, autonomy 
mean nothing under a Hapsburg dynasty, do hereby make and 
declare this our Declaration of Independence. 

We do this because of our belief that no people should be forced 

to live u^der a sovereignty they do not recognize, and because of 

our knowledge and firm conviction that our nation cannot freely 

develop in a Hapsburg mock federation, which is only a new form of 

1 Current History, 1918, vol. viii, pp. 492-494. 

190 



Czecho-Slovak Declaration of Independence 191 

the denationalizing oppression under which we have suffered for the 
last three hundred years. We consider freedom to be the first pre- 
requisite for federalization, and beHeve that the free nations of cen- 
tral and eastern Europe may easily federate should they find it 
necessary. 

II. We make this declaration on the basis of our historic and 
natural right. We have been an independent state since the seventh 
century; and in 1526, as an independent state, consisting of Bohemia, 
Moravia, and Silesia, we joined with Austria and Hungary in a 
defensive union against the Turkish danger. We have never vol- 
untarily surrendered our rights as an independent state in this con- 
federation. The Hapsburgs broke their compact with our nation 
by illegally transgressing our rights and violating the constitution 
of our state,which they had pledged themselves to uphold, and we 
therefore refuse longer to remain a part of Austria-Hungary in any 
form. 

We claim the right of Bohemia to be reunited with her Slovak 
brethem of Slovakia, once a part of our national state, later torn from 
our national body, and fifty years ago incorporated in the Hungarian 
state of the Magyars, who, by their unspeakable violence and ruth- 
less oppression of their subject races, have lost all moral and human 
right to rule anybody but themselves. 

III. The world knows the history of our struggle against the 
Hapsburg oppression, intensified and systematized by the Austro- 
Hungarian dualistic compromise of 1867.^ This dualism is only a 
shameless organization of brute force and exploitation of the majority 
by the minority; it is a political conspiracy of the Germans and 
Magyars against our own as well as the other Slav and the Latin 
nations of the monarchy. The world knows the justice of our claims, 
which the Hapsburgs themselves dared not deny. Francis Joseph 
[I], in the most solemn manner, repeatedly recognized the sovereign 
rights of our nation. The Germans and Mag>^ars opposed this recog- 
nition; and Austria-Hungary, bowing before the Pan-Germans, be- 
came a colony of Germany, and, as her vanguard to the East, pro- 
voked the last Balkan conflict, as well as the present world war, which 
was begun by the Hapsburgs alone without the consent of the repre- 
sentatives of the people. 

We cannot and will not continue to live under the rule, direct or 
indirect, of the violators of Belgium, France, and Serbia, the would-be 

1 The so-called Ausgleich. 



192 Historical Source Book 

murderers of Russia and Rumania, the murderers of tens of thou- 
sands of civilians and soldiers of our blood, and the accomphces in 
numberless unspeakable crimes committed in tkis war against hu- 
manity by the two degenerate and irresponsible dynasties. We will 
not remain a part of a state which has no justification for existence 
and which, refusing to accept the fundamental principles of modern 
world organization, remains only an artificial and immoral political 
structure, hindering every movement toward democratic and social 
progress. The Hapsburg dynasty, weighed down by a huge inheri- 
tance of error and crime, is a perpetual menace to the peace of the 
world, and we deem it our duty toward humanity and civilization to 
aid in bringing about its downfall and destruction. 

We reject the sacrilegious assertion that the power of the Haps- 
burg and HohenzoUern dynasties is of divine origin; we refuse to 
recognize the divine right of kings. Our nation elected the Haps- 
burgs to the throne of Bohemia of its own free will, and by the same 
right deposes them. We hereby declare the Hapsburg dynasty un- 
worthy of leading our nation, and deny all of their claims to rule in 
the Czecho-Slovak land, which we here and now declare shall hence- 
forth be a free and independent people and nation. 

IV. We accept and shall adhere to the ideals of modern democracy, 
as they have been the ideals of our nation for centuries. We accept 
the American principles as laid down by President Wilson: the 
principles of liberated mankind — of the actual equality of nations 
— and of governments deriving all their just power from the consent 
of the governed. We, the nation of Comenius,^ cannot but accept 
these principles expressed in the American Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, the principles of Lincoln, and of the Declaration of the 
Rights of Man and of the Citizen. For these principles ouf nation 
shed its blood in the memorable Hussite wars five hundred years ago; 
for these same principles, beside her aUies in Russia, Italy, and France, 
our nation is shedding its blood to-day. 

V. We shall outline only the main principles of the constitution 
of the Czecho-Slovak nation; the final decision as to the constitution 
itself falls to the legally chosen representatives of the liberated and 
united people. 

The Czecho-Slovak state shall be a repubhc. In constant en- 
deavor for progress it will guarantee complete freedom of conscience, 
religion and science, literature and art, speech, the press, and the 
^ A Moravian bishop and educator (i 592-1 671). 



Czecho-Slovak Declaration of Independence 193 

right of assembly and petition. The Church shall be separated from 
the State. Our democracy shall rest on universal suffrage; women 
shall be placed on an equal footing with men, politically, socially, 
and culturally. The rights of the minority shall be safeguarded by 
proportional representation; national minorities shall enjoy equal 
rights. The government shall be parliamentary in form and shall 
recognize the principles of the initiative and referendum. The stand- 
ing army will be replaced by militia. 

The Czecho-Slovak nation will carry out far-reaching social and 
economic reforms; the large estates will be redeemed for home 
colonization; patents of nobiUty will be abolished. Our nation will 
assume its part of the Austro-Hungarian pre-war pubUc debt; the 
debts for this war we leave to those who incurred them. 

In its foreign policy the Czecho-Slovak nation will accept its 
full share of responsibility in the reorganization of eastern Europe. 
It accepts fully the democratic and social principle of nationalism and 
subscribes to the doctrine that all covenants and treaties shall be 
entered into openly and frankly without secret diplomacy. 

Our constitution shall provide an efficient, rational, and just 
government, which will exclude all special privileges and prohibit 
class legislation. 

Democracy has defeated theocratic autocracy. Militarism is 
overcome, democracy is victorious; on the basis of democracy man- 
kind will be reorganized. The forces of darkness have served the 
victory of light, the longed-for age of humanity is dawning. 

We believe in democracy, we believe in liberty, and liberty 
evermore. 

Given in Paris on the eighteenth of October, 1918.^ 

1 Signed by Thomas G. Masaryk, prime minister, M. R. Stefanik, minister of 
national defense, and Edward Benes, minister of foreign affairs. 



33. COVENANT OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS, 1919 ^ 

As soon as the Peace Conference met at Paris steps were 
taken to organize a League of Nations. A committee of dele- 
gates, representing fourteen countries and including President 
Wilson and Mr. E. W. House (United States), Lord Robert 
Cecil and General Smuts (Great Britain), M. Leon Bourgeois 
(France), Premier Orlando (Italy), and Baron Chinda (Japan), 
held daily sessions and on February 14, 1919, presented a 
unanimous report to a plenary session of the Conference. 
The preliminary draft of the constitution or covenant was 
subsequently modified as the result of world-wide discussion 
and on April 28 was again laid before the Conference. This 
amended document then became the first part of the peace treaty 
with Germany. The signing of the treaty by the Allied and 
Associated governments and its subsequent ratification set up 
the League of Nations in active operation. The original mem- 
bers of the League are twenty-six Allied belligerent powers 
(counting separately the British Empire, Canada, Austraha, 
South Africa, New Zealand, and India) and four powers (Bohvia, 
Ecuador, Peru, and Uruguay) in a state of diplomatic rupture 
with the enemy. Thirteen neutral countries were also invited 
to accede to the covenant. China, which did not sign the 
peace treaty, and the United States, which did not ratify it, 
were consequently excluded from the Hst of original members 
of the League. 

Covenant of the League or Nations, 19 19 

The high contracting parties, in order to promote international co- 
operation and to achieve international peace and security, by 
the acceptance of obligations not to resort to war, by the pre- 
scription of open, just, and honorable relations between nations, 
by the firm establishment of the understandings of international 
1 Senate Document, No. 49 (66th Congress, ist Session), pp. 8-17. Washington, 
1919. 

194 



Covenant of the League of Nations 195 

law as the actual rule of conduct among governments, and by the 
maintenance of justice and a scrupulous respect for all treaty 
obligations in the deaHngs of organized peoples with one another, 
agree to this covenant of the League of Nations 

Article I 

The original members of the League of Nations shall be those of 
the signatories which are named in the annex to this covenant and 
also such of those other states named in the annex as shall accede 
I without reservation to this covenant. Such accession shall be 
effected by a declaration deposited with the Secretariat within two 
months of the coming into force of the covenant. Notice thereof 
shall be sent to all other members of the league. 

Any fully self-governing state, dominion, or colony, not named 
, in the annex, may become a member of the league, if its admission is 
.agreed to by two-thirds of the Assembly, provided that it shall give 
I effective guarantees of its sincere intention to observe its interna- 
! tional obligations, and shall accept such regulations as may be pre- 
scribed by the league in regard to its military, naval, and air forces, 
iand armaments. 

Any member of the league may, after two years' notice of its 
I intention so to do, withdraw from the league, provided that all its 
' international obligations and all its obligations under this covenant 
' shall have been fulfilled at the time of its withdrawal. 

I Article II 

j The action of the league under this covenant shall be effected 
! through the instrumentality of an Assembly and of a Council, with 
la permanent Secretariat. 

Article III 

The Assembly shall consist of representatives of the members 
i of the league. 

! The Assembly shall meet at stated intervals, and from time to 
time as occasion may require, at the seat of the league or at such 
other place as may be decided upon. 

The Assembly may deal at its meetings with any matter within 
the sphere of action of the league or affecting the peace of the world. 
At meetings of the Assembly each member of the league shall 
have one vote, and may have not more than three representatives. 



196 Historical Source Book 

Article IV 

The Council shall consist of representatives of the principal 
Allied and Associated powers, together with representatives of four 
other members of the league. These four members of the league shall 
be selected by the Assembly from time to time in its discretion. 
Until the appointment of the representatives of the four members 
of the league first selected by the Assembly, representatives of Bel- 
gium, Brazil, Spain, and Greece shall be members of the Council. 

With the approval of the majority of the Assembly, the Council 
may name additional members of the league whose representatives 
shall always be members of the Council; the Council with like ap- 
proval may increase the number of members of the league to be 
selected by the Assembly for representation to the Council. 

The Council shall meet from time to time as occasion may require, 
and at least once a year, at the seat of the league, or at such other 
place as may be decided upon. 

The Council may deal at its meetings with any matter within 
the sphere of action of the league or affecting the peace of the world. 

Any member of the league not represented on the Council shall 
be invited to send a representative to sit as a member at any meeting 
of the Council during the consideration of matters specially affecting 
the interests of that member of the league. 

At meetings of the Council each member of the league repre- 
sented on the Council shall have one vote, and may have not more 
than one representative. 

Article V 

Except where otherwise expressly provided in this covenant, or 
by the terms of the present treaty, decisions at any meeting of the 
Assembly or of the Council shall require the agreement of all the 
members of the league represented at the meeting. 

All matters of procedure at meetings of the Assembly or of the 
Council, the appointment of committees to investigate particular 
matters, shall be regulated by the Assembly or by the Council, and 
may be decided by a majority of the members of the league represented 
at the meeting. 

The first meeting of the Assembly and the first meeting of the 
Council shall be summoned by the President of the United States of 
America, 



Covenant of the League of Nations 197 

Article VI 

The permarxent Secretariat shall be established at the seat of the 
league. The Secretariat shall comprise a Secretary General and 
such secretaries and staff as may be required. 

The first Secretary General shall be the person named in the 
annex; thereafter the Secretary General shall be appointed by the 
Council, with the approval of the majority of the Assembly. 

The secretaries and the staff of the Secretariat shall be appointed 
by the Secretary General, with the approval of the Council. 

The Secretary General shall act in that capacity at all meetings 
of the Assembly and of the Council. 

The expenses of the Secretariat shall be borne by the members of 
the league, in accordance with the apportionment of the expenses of 
the International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union. 

Article VII 

The seat of the league is established at Geneva. 

The Council may at any time decide that the seat of the league 
shall be established elsewhere. 

All positions under or in connection with the league, including 
the Secretariat, shall be open equally to men and women. 

Representatives of the members of the league and officials of the 
League, when engaged on the business of the League, shall enjoy 
diplomatic privileges and immunities. 

The buildings and other property occupied by the league or 
its officials, or by representatives attending its meetings, shall be 
inviolable. 

Article VIII 

The members of the league recognize that the maintenance of 
peace requires the reduction of national armaments to the lowest 
point consistent with the national safety, and the enforcement by 
common action of international obligations. 

The Council, taking account of the geographical situation and 
circumstances of each state, shall formulate plans for such reduction 
for the consideration and action of the several governments. 

Such plans shall be subject to reconsideration and revision at 
least every ten years. 

After these plans shall have been adopted by the several govern- 



1 98 Historical Source Book 

ments, the limits of armaments therein fixed shall not be exceeded 
without the concurrence of the Council. 

The members of the league agree that the manufacture by pri- 
vate enterprise of munitions and implements of war is open to grave 
objections. The Council shall advise how the evil effects attendant 
upon such manufacture can be prevented, due regard being had to the 
necessities of those members of the league which are not able to 
manufacture the munitions and implements of war necessary for 
their safety. 

The members of the league undertake to interchange full and 
frank information as to the scale of their armaments, their military, 
naval, and air programs, and the condition of such of their industries 
as are adaptable to warhke purposes. 

i 
Article IX 

A permanent commission shall be constituted to advise the 
Council on the execution of the provisions of articles I and VIII, 
and on military, naval, and air questions generally. 

Article X 

The members of the league undertake to respect and preserve 
against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing 
political independence of all members of the league. In case of any 
such aggression or in case of any threat or danger of such aggression, 
the Council shall advise upon the means by which this obligation 
shall be fulfilled. 

Article XI 

Any war or threat of war, whether immediately affecting any 
of the members of the league or not, is hereby declared a matter of 
concern to the whole league, and the league shall take any action 
that may be deemed wise and effectual to safeguard the peace of 
nations. In case any such emergency should arise, the Secretary 
General shall, on the request of any member of the league, forthwith 
summon a meeting of the Council. 

It is also declared to be the friendly right of each member of the 
league to bring to the attention of the Assembly, or of the Council, 
any circumstance whatever affecting international relations which 
threatens to disturb international peace or the good understanding 
between nations upon which peace depends. 



Covenant of the League of Nations 199 

Article XII 

The members of the league agree that if there should arise be- 
tween them any dispute likely to lead to a rupture, they will submit 
the matter either to arbitration or an inquiry by the Council, and 
they agree in no case to resort to war until three months after the 
award by the arbitrators or the report by the Council. 

In any case under this article the award of the arbitrators shall 
be made within a reasonable time, and the report of the Council shall 
be made within six m.onths after the submission of the dispute. 

Article XIII 

The members of the league agree that, whenever any dispute shall 
arise between them which they recognize to be suitable for sub- 
mission to arbitration and which cannot be satisfactorily settled by 
diplomacy, they will submit the whole subject matter to arbitration. 

Disputes as to the interpretation of a treaty, as to any question of 
international law, as to the existence of any fact, which, if established, 
would constitute a breach of any international obligation, or as to 
the extent and nature of the reparation to be made for any such 
breach, are declared to be among those which are generally suitable 
for submission to arbitration. 

For the consideration of any such dispute the court of arbitration 
to which the case is referred shall be the court agreed on by the 
parties to the dispute, or stipulated in any convention existing be- 
tween them. 

The members of the league agree that they will carry out in full 
good faith any award that may be rendered, and that they will not 
resort to war against a mem.ber of the league which complies there- 
with. In the event of any failure to carry out such an award, the 
Council shall propose what steps should be taken to give effect 

thereto. 

Article XIV 

The Council shall formulate and submit to the members of the 
league for adoption plans for the estabhshment of a permanent court 
of international justice. The court shall be competent to hear and 
determine any dispute of any international character which the 
parties thereto submit to it. The court may also give an advisory 
opinion upon any dispute or question referred to it by the Council 
or by the Assembly. 



200 Historical Source Book 

Article XV 

If there should arise between members of the league any dispute 
likely to lead to a rupture, which is not submitted to arbitration in 
accordance with Article XIII, the members of the league agree that 
they will submit the matter to the Council. Any party to the dis- 
pute may effect such submission by giving notice of the existence of 
the dispute to the Secretary General, who will make all necessary 
arrangements for a full investigation and consideration thereof. 

For this purpose the parties to the dispute will communicate to 
the Secretary General, as promptly as possible, statements of their 
case, with all the relevant facts and papers, and the Council may 
forthwith direct the publication thereof. 

The Council shall endeavor to effect a settlement of any dispute, 
and if such efforts are successful, a statement shall be made public, 
giving such facts and explanations regarding the dispute and terms 
of settlement thereof as the Council may deem appropriate. 

If the dispute is not thus settled, the Council, either unanimously 
or by a majority vote, shall make and publish a report containing a 
statement of the facts of the dispute and the recommendations which 
are deemed just and proper in regard thereto. 

Any member of the league represented on the Council may make 
pubHc a statement of the facts of the dispute and of its conclusions 
regarding the same. 

If a report by the Council is unanimously agreed to by the mem- 
bers thereof, other than the representatives of one or more of the 
parties to the dispute, the members of the league agree that they 
will not go to war with any party to the dispute which complies with 
the recommendations of the report. 

If the Council fails to reach a report which is unanimously agreed 
to by the members thereof, other than the representatives of one or 
more of the parties to the dispute, the members of the league reserve 
to themselves the right to take such action as they shall consider 
necessary for the maintenance of right and justice. 

If the dispute between the parties is claimed by one of them, and 
is found by the Council to arise out of a matter which by international 
law is solely within the domestic jurisdiction of that party, the Coun- 
cil shall so report and shall make no recommendation as to its 
settlement. 

The Council may in any case under this article refer the dispute 



* Covenant of the League of Nations 201 

to the Assembly. The dispute shall be so referred at the request of 
either party to the dispute, provided that such request be made 
within fourteen days after the submission of the dispute to the 
Council. 

In any case referred to the Assembly, all the provisions of this 
article, and of Article XII relating to the action and powers of the 
Council, shall apply to the action and powers of the Assembly, pro- 
vided that a report made by the Assembly, if concurred in by the 
representatives of those members of the league represented on the 
Council and of a majority of the other members of the League, exclu- 
sive in each case of the representatives of the parties to the dispute, 
shall have the same force as a report by the Council concurred in by 
all the mem.bers thereof, other than the representatives of one or 
more of the parties to the dispute. 

Article XVI 

Should any member of the league resort to war in disregard of 
its covenants under articles XII, XIII, or XV, it shall ipso facto 
be deemed to have committed an act of war against all other mem- 
bers of the league, which hereby undertake immediately to subject 
it to the severance of all trade or financial relations, the prohibition 
of all intercourse between their nationals and the nationals of the 
covenant-breaking state, and the prevention of all financial, com- 
mercial, or personal intercourse between the nationals of the cove- 
nant-breaking state and the nationals of any other state, whether a 
member of the league or not. 

It shall be the duty of the Council in such case to recommend to 
the several governments concerned what effective military, naval, 
or air force the members of the league shall severally contribute to 
the armed forces to be used to protect the covenants of the league. 

The members of the league agree, further, that they will mutu- 
ally support one another in the financial and economic measures 
which are taken under this article, in order to minimize the loss 
and inconvenience resulting from the above measures, and that they 
will mutually support one another in resisting any special measures 
aimed at one of their number by the covenant -breaking state, and 
that they will take the necessary steps to afford passage through 
their territory to the forces of any of the members of the league which 
are cooperating to protect the covenants of the league. 



202 Historical Source Book 

Any member of the league which has violated any covenants of 
the league may be declared to be no longer a member of the league, 
by a vote of the Council concurred in by the representatives of all 
the other members of the league represented thereon. 

Article XVII 

In the event of a dispute between a member of the league and a 
state which is not a member of the league, or between states not 
members of the league, the state or states not members of the league 
shall be invited to accept the obligations of membership in the league 
for the purposes of such dispute, upon such conditions as the Council 
may deem just. If such invitation is accepted, the provisions of 
articles XII to XVI, inclusive, shall be applied with such modifica- , 
tions as may be deemed necessary by the Council. I 

Upon such invitation being given, the Council shall immediately 
institute an inquiry into the circumstances of the dispute and recom- 
mend such action as may seem best and most effectual in the cir- 
cumstances. 

If a state so invited shall refuse to accept the obligations of mem- 
bership in the league for the purposes of such dispute, and shall resort 
to war against a member of the league, the provisions of Article XVI 
shall be applicable as against the state taking such action. 

If both parties to the dispute, when so invited, refuse to accept 
the obligations of membership in the league for the purposes of such 
dispute, the Council may take such measures and make such recom- 
mendations as will prevent hostilities and will result in the settle- 
ment of the dispute. 

Article XVIII 

Every treaty or international engagement entered into here- 
after by any member of the league shall be forthwith registered 
with the Secretariat and shall, as soon as possible, be published by 
it. No such treaty or international engagement shall be binding 
until so registered. 

Article XIX 

The Assembly may, from time to time, advise the reconsidera- 
tion by members of the league of treaties which have become inap- 
phcable, and the consideration of international conditions whose 
continuance might endanger the peace of the world. 



Covenant of the League of Nations 203 

Article XX 

The members of the league severally agree that this covenant is 
accepted as abrogating all obligations or understandings inter se 
which are inconsistent with the terms thereof, and solemnly under- 
take that they will not hereafter enter into any engagements incon- 
sistent with the terms thereof. 

In case any member of the league shall, before becoming a member 
of the league, have undertaken any obhgations inconsistent with the 
terms of this covenant, it shall be the duty of such member to take 
immediate steps to procure its release from such obhgations. 

Article XXI 

Nothing in this covenant shall be deemed to afifect the validity of 
international engagements, such as treaties of arbitration or regional 
understandings Hke the Monroe Doctrine, for securing the mainte- 
nance of peace. 

Article XXII 

To those colonies and territories which, as a consequence of the 
late war, have ceased to be under the sovereignty of the states which 
formerly governed them, and which are inhabited by peoples not yet 
able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the 
modem world, there should be applied the principle that the well- 
being and development of such peoples form a sacred trust of civiliza- 
tion, and that securities for the performance of this trust should be 
embodied in this covenant. 

The best method of giving practicable effect to this principle is 
that the tutelage of such peoples be intrusted to advanced nations, 
who, by reason of their resources, their experience, or their geographi- 
cal position, can best undertake this responsibihty, and who are will- 
ing to accept it, and that this tutelage should be exercised by them 
as mandatories on behalf of the league. 

The character of the mandate must differ according to the stage 
of development of the people, the geographical situation of the terri- 
tory, its economic conditions, and other similar circumstances. 

Certain communities, formerly belonging to the Turkish Empire, 
have reached a stage of development where their existence as inde- 
pendent nations can be provisionally recognized, subject to the ren- 
dering of administrative advice and assistance by a mandatory until 



204 Historical Source Book 

such time as they are able to stand alone. The wishes of these com- 
munities must be a principal consideration in the selection of the 
mandatory. 

Other peoples, especially those of Central Africa, are at such a 
stage that the mandatory must be responsible for the administration 
of the territory under conditions which will guarantee freedom of 
conscience and religion, subject only to the maintenance of pubhc 
order and morals, the prohibition of abuses such as the slave trade, 
the arms traffic, and the liquor traffic, and the prevention of the 
estabUshment of fortifications or military and naval bases and of 
military training of the natives for other than police purposes and 
the defense of territory, and will also secure equal opportunities for 
the trade and commerce of other members of the league. 

There are territories, such as Southwest Africa and certain of the 
South Pacific islands, which, owing to the sparseness of their popu- 
lation, or their small size, or their remoteness from the centers of 
civilization, or their geographical contiguity to the territory of the 
mandatory, and other circumstances, can be best administered under 
the laws of the mandatory as integral portions of its territory, sub- 
ject to the safeguards above mentioned in the interests of the indige- 
nous population. 

In every case of mandate, the mandatory shall render to the 
Council an annual report in reference to the territory committed to 
its charge. 

The degree of authority, control, or administration to be exercised 
by the mandatory, if not previously agreed upon by the members of 
the league, shall be explicitly defined in each case by the Council. 

A permanent commission shall be constituted to receive and 
examine the annual reports of the mandatories and to advise the 
Council on all matters relating to the observance of the mandates. 

Article XXIII 

Subject to and in accordance with the provisions of international 
conventions existing or hereafter to be agreed upon, the members of 
the league (a) will endeavor to secure and maintain fair and humane 
conditions of labor for men, women, and children, both in their own 
countries and in all countries to which their commercial and indus- 
trial relations extend, and for that purpose will establish and main- 
tain the necessary international organizations; (b) undertake to 



Covenant of the League of Nations 205 

secure just treatment of the native inhabitants of territories under 
their control; (r) will intrust the league with the general super-' 
vision over the execution of agreements with regard to the traffic 
in women and children, and the traffic in opium and other danger- 
ous drugs; (d) will intrust the league with the general supervision 
of the trade in arms and ammunition with the countries in which 
the control of this traffic is necessary in the common interest; (e) will 
make provision to secure and maintain freedom of communications 
and of transit and equitable treatment for the commerce of all mem- 
bers of the league. In this connection, the special necessities of the 
regions devastated during the war of 1914-1918 shall be in mind; 
(/) will endeavor to take steps in matters of international concern 
for the prevention and control of disease. 

Article XXIV 

There shall be placed under the direction of the league all inter- 
national bureaus already established by general treaties, if the parties 
to such treaties consent. Ml such international bureaus and all com- 
missions for the regulation of m^atters of international interest here- 
after constituted shall be placed under the direction of the league. 

In all matters of international interest which are regulated by 
general conventions, but which are not placed under the control of 
international bureaus or commissions, the Secretariat of the league 
shall, subject to the consent of the Council and if desired by the 
parties, collect and distribute all relevant information and shall 
render any other assistance which may be necessary or desirable. 

The Council may include as part of the expenses of the Secre- 
tariat the expenses of any bureau or commission which is placed 
under the direction of the league. 

Article XXV 

The members of the league agree to encourage and promote the 
establishment and cooperation of duly authorized voluntary national 
Red Cross organizations having as purposes the improvement of 
health, the prevention of disease, and the mitigation of suffering 
throughout the world. 

Article XXVI 

Amendments to this covenant will take effect when ratified by 
the members of the league whose representatives compose the Council, 



2o6 Historical Source Book 

and by a majority of the members of the league whose representa- 
tives compose the Assembly. 

No such amendment shall bind any member of the league which 
signifies its dissent therefrom, but in that case it shall cease to be 
a member of the league. 

Annex 

1. Original members of the League of Nations signatories of the 
treaty of peace: 

United States of America, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, British Em- 
pire (Canada, AustraHa, South Africa, New Zealand, India), China, 
Cuba, Ecuador, France, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Hejaz, Hon- 
duras, Italy, Japan, Liberia, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Poland, 
Portugal, Rumania, Serb-Croat-Slovene State, Siam, Czecho- 
slovakia, Uruguay. 

States invited to accede to the covenant: 

Argentine RepubHc, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Netherlands, 
Norway, Paraguay, Persia, Salvador, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, 
Venezuela. 

2. First Secretary General of the League of Nations: The Honor- 
able Sir James Eric Drummond, K.C.M.G., C.B. 



INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 



Note. — The pronunciation of most proper names is indicated either by a simplified 
spelling or by their accentuation and division into syllables. The diacritical marks em- 
ployed are those found in Webstvir's New Inlernational Dictionary and are the following: 



a as in ale, 
a " " senate. 



care, 
am. 

account, 
arm. 
ask. 
sofa, 
eve. 
event, 
end. 
" " recent. 



a 

e " '' 
e " " 
6 " " 
e 



e " " maker. 
I " " Ice. 



6 as in old. 
6 " " obey. 
6 " '' 6rb. 
6 " " 6dd. 
o " " soft. 
o " " connect. 
u " " use. 
u " " unite. 
u " " urn. 
u " " up. 
u " " circws. 
u " " menii. 
oo as in food. 
66 " " foot. 
ou " " out. 



oi as in oil. 
ch " " chair, 
g " " go. 
ng " " sing. 
I) " " igk. 
th " " then, 
th " " thin, 
tu '* " nature. 

du'* " vendure. 

K for ch as in Ger. ich, ach. 

N as in Fr. bon. 

y " " yet. 

zh for z as in azure. 



Act of Settlement, quoted, 58-62. 

Adams, John, 69, 139. 

Address to All Peoples, quoted, 

116-119. 
Aids, feudal, 4 and note 2, 5, 15, 18. 
Alexander I, tsar of Russia, 136. 
Alias and pluries \^Tits, 40 and note 

2. 
Alsace (al-sas') -Lorraine (lo-ran'), 

188, 189. 
Amendments to the Constitution of 

the United States, 103-108. 
Amercements, 5 and note 7, 6. 
Anne, queen of England, 58, 
Arbitration, international, 199-202. 
Armaments, limitation of, 1 79-181, 

183, 187, 188, 197, 198. 
Arms, right to bear, 52, 68, 103. 
Articles of Confederation, quoted, 

74-82. 
Assembly of the League of Nations, 

organization, 195. 



Assizes, 5 and note 5. 

Attainder, bills of, 96, 97. 

Ausgleich (ous'gliK), the Austro- 

Hungarian, 191 and note i. 
Austria-Hungary, 189, 190, 191. 

Bail, not to be excessive, 53, 67, 104. 

Belgium, 188, 191. 

Benedict XV, pope, 187. 

Benevolences, 19, 21. 

Bill of Rights, quoted, 50-57. 

Blockades, 168. 

Bohemia, 191, 192. 

Bourgeois, Leon, 194. 

Bourgeoisie (boor-zhwa-ze'), the, 

156-166. 
Bradford, William, 17. 

Cabinet government in Great Bri- 
tain, 149. 
Canada, 81, 147. 
Castle-guard, 6. 



207 



2o8 Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary 



Cecil, Lord Robert, 194. 

Charles I, king of England, 18; II, 
40, 56. 

Charter of Liberties, 14 and note 2. 

Charter of the Forest, 14 and note 2. 

Chartism, 143. 

Chartist Petition, quoted, 143-146. 

Chinda, Baron, 194. 

Church and State in England, 2, 13, 
37, 54, 56, 61. 

Coke, Sir Edward, 18. 

Colonial policy of Great Britain, 
Lord Durham on, 148-151. 

Co-me'ni-us, Johann Amos, 192 and 
note I. 

Committee of the States, the, 79, 81. 

Common Law, the, 87, 104. 

Communes, medieval, 157 and note i. 

Communist Manifesto, quoted, 
155-166. 

Concert of Europe, the, 136. 

Confirmation of the Charters, 
quoted, 14-16. 

Congress of Paris, the, 167. 

Congress of the United States, 
under the Articles of Confedera- 
tion, 75-81; under the Consti- 
tution, 92-97. 

Constitution of the United States, 
quoted, 91-108. 

Constitutions: New England Con- 
federation, 22-28; Instrument of 
Government, 29-39; Articles of 
Confederation, 74-82; Consti- 
tution of the United States, 
91-108. 

Continental Congress, Second, 69. 

Contraband of war, 168. 

Contracts, validity of, laws impair- 
ing, 88, 97. 

Coronation Oath, the, 56, 61. 

Corvee (kor-va'), the, 116 and note 3. 

Council of the League of Nations, 
organization, 196. 



Covenant of the League of Nations, 

quoted, 194-206. 
Crises, economic, 160, 161. 
Cromwell, Oliver, 29, 37. 
Czecho-Slovakia, 190. 

Dardanelles, the, 189. 

Declaration of Independence, 

quoted, 69-73. 
Declaration of Independence of the 

Czecho-Slovak Nation, quoted, 

190-193. 
Declaration of Paris, quoted, 167,168. 
Declaration of the Rights of Man 

and of the Citizen, quoted, 

113-115- 

Decree abolishing the Feudal Sys- 
tem, quoted, 109-112. 

Dickinson, John, 63, 74, 91. 

Dispensation of laws, forbidden, 52, 

57, 67. 
Durham Report, quoted, 147-154. 

Education, promotion of, 88, 129. 

Edward I, king of England, 14, 18 
and note 2; III, 18 and note 3, 19, 
20. 

Engels (Sng'els), Friedrich, 155. 

Escheats, 8 and note 2. 

European entanglements, Wash- 
ington on, 132. 

Everett, Edward, 178, 

Ex post facto laws, forbidden, 96, 97. 

Federal Union, the, Washington on, 

122-130; Lincoln on, 171-177. 
Felony, forfeiture for, 7 and note i, 

8 and note 2. 
Feudal dues, abolition of, 109-111, 

116, 118, 119. 
Final Act of the First Hague Peace 

Conference, quoted, 181-183. 
Fines, not to be excessive, 53, 67, 

87, 104. 



Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary 209 



Forced loans, i8. 19, 20. 

Foreign policy of the United States, 

Washington on, 130-134; Monroe 

on,i40-i42; Roosevelt on, 184, 185. 
Francis I, emperor of Austria, 136. 
Francis Joseph I, emperor of Austria, 

191. 
Franklin, Benjamin, 69, 91. 
Frederick William III, king of 

Prussia, 136. 
Freedom of the seas, 188. 

Gabelle (gti-bsr), the, 119 and 

note I. 
Geneva, 197. 

Geneva Convention, the, 182. 
George, David Lloyd, 187. 
George III, kmg of England, 70, 

72; IV, 136. 
Gettysburg Address, quoted, 1 78. 
Great Charter, quoted, 1-13. 
Great Seal, the, 2c. 31, 33, 35, 37, 41, 

51,62. 
Guilds, medieval. 155, 156. 

Habeas Corpus, wrt of, 7, note 4, 20, 
40-49, 87, 96. 

Habeas Corpus Act, quoted, 40-49. 

Hague Peace Confereaces, the, 136, 
179, 181. 

Hague Tribunal, the, i^i. 

Hamilton, Alexander, 91.120. 

Hancock, John, 73, notei. 

Hapsburg (haps'boorK) dynasty, 
the, 190, 191, 192. 

Henry I, king of England,-; II, i; 
III, 9, 10, 1 1, 14 and note 3 

Hohenzollern (ho'en-tsol-er,) dy- 
nasty, the, 187, 190, 191. 

Holy Alliance, quoted, 136-1;?.. 

House, E. W^., 194- % 

House of Representatives of he 
United States, organization, 02. 

Hunting rights in France, 109, nc 



Immunities of legislators, 52, 75, 94. 
Impeachment, 62, 93. 
Income Tax Amendment, the, 107. 
Indians, treatment of, in the North- 
west Territory, 88. 
Innocent III, pope, 2. 
Inquests, legal, 5, 7 and note 4. 
Instrument of Government, quoted, 

29-39- 
International bureaus, 205. 

James I, king of England, 17, 58, 60; 

n, 50, 51, 55- 
Jay, John, 120. 

Jay Treaty, the, 125 and note i. 
Jefferson, Thomas, 69, 139. 
Jews, 4. 

John, king of England, i, 14. 
Jury, trial by, 8, note i, 51, 53, 64, 

68, 71, 87, 100, 103. 

"Keepers of the Liberty of Eng- 
land," the, 30, 36. 
Kings, divine right of, 192. 

League of Nations, the, organized, 
194; Covenant of, 194-206; origi- 
nal members of, 206. 

" Liberty ,Equality, Fraternity," 116. 

Lincoln, Abraham, 169, 178, 192. 

Lincoln's First Inaugural Address, 
quoted, 169-177. 

Livingston, R. R., 69. 

London, 4. 

Lord Protector, Cromwell as, 37. 

Louis XVI, king of France, 109, 112. 

Madison, James, 91, 120. 

Mag'na Car'ta. See Great Charter. 

Mandatories under the League of 

Nations, 203, 204. 
Manorial courts in France, no. 
Maritime law, regulation of, by the 

Declaration of Paris, 167, 168. 



2IO Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary- 



Marque and reprisal, letters of, 76, 

77, 80, 95, 97. 
Martial law, declaration of, 20, 21. 
Marx, Karl, 155. 
Mary (wife of William III), 50, 53, 

54, 58. 
Masaryk, Thomas G., 190, 193, 

note I. 
Mason, George, 66. 
Mayflower Compact, quoted, 17. 
Merchants, treatment of, 8. 
Militarism, evils of, 179, 180. 
Militia forces, 68, 76, 96, 103, 193. 
Mississippi River, navigation of, 

125 and note i. 
Monroe Doctrine, quoted, 140-142. 
Montenegro, 189. 
Moravia, 191. 
Muraviev, Count, 179. 

National Assembly, the, 109, 113. 
National Convention, the, 117. 
Netherlands, Austrian, 116. 
New England Confederation, 

quoted, 22-28. 
Nice (nes), 116. 
Nicholas II, tsar of Russia, 136, 179, 

181. 
Nobility, titles of, 76, 97, 193, 
Northwest Ordinance, quoted, 83-90. 

Octroi (6k-trwa'), the, 119 and note 

2. 
Ordinance of 1787. See Northwest 

Ordinance. 
Orlando, Vittorio, 194. 
Otis, James, 63. 

Ottoman Empire, 189, 190, 203. 
Oyer and Terminer, sessions of, 44 

and note 2. 

Parliament, British, contest of, with 
the Crown, 14, 18, 40, 50, 58. 

Party spirit, Washington on, 127, 
128. 



Peace Circular of Nicholas II, 

quoted, 179, 180. 
Peace movement, the, in Europe, 

136,179-183,194. 
Peers, judgment of, 8 and note i, 

9,10,19,67,88. 
Petition of Right, quoted, 18-21. 
Petition, right of, 52, 65, 103. 
Pilgrims, the, 17. 
Pinckney Treaty, the, 125 and 

note I. 
Pleas, common, 5 and note i ; of the 

Crown, 6 and note i. 
Poland, 189. 

Powers, separation of, 67, 115. 
PrcBcipe writs, 7 and no;e 3. 
President of the U.iited States, 

97-99, 104-105. 
Press, freedom of the, 68, 103, 114, 

115, 192. 
Prince of Orange. See William III. 
Princess of Orange. See Mary. 
Privateering, 168. 
Private property, rights of, 68, 88, 

103, 114, 115. 
Privy Council, 19 20, 62. 
Prohibition Amaidment, the, 107, 

108. 
Proletariat, th, 1 61-166. 
Protectorate, he, 29. 
Provision anc Praemunire, statute of, 

47. 
PubHc credt, maintenance of, 129, 

130. 
Punishmeits, not to be cruel or un- 

usual,53, 67, 87, 104, 114. 

Quartdng soldiers, 20, 21, 51, 71, 

107 
Quetec Act, the, 71 and note i. 

Rconstruction Amendments, the, 

105-107. 
Ced Cross organizations, 205. 



Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary 211 



Reform Act, First, 143, 144. 

Reliefs, feudal, 2. 

Religious freedom, 68, 87, 103, 114, 
19;^. 

Representation, taxation without, 
64, 71. 

Resolutions of the Stamp Act Con- 
gress, quoted, 63-65. 

Richard I, king of England, 9, 10, 11 ; 

n, 47. 

Rights of man, 66, 70, 113, 114. 
Roman Catholics, disabilities of, in 

Great Britain, 33, 38, 56, 61. 
Roosevelt's Inaugural Address, 

quoted, 184-186. 
Rumania, 189, 192. 
Runnymede, 13. 
Russia, 188, 192. 

Savoy, 116. 

Scutage, 4 and note i . 

Search warrants, 67, 68, 103. 

Second Continental Congress, the, 
69. 

Secretariat of the League of Na- 
tions, organization, 197. 

Secret diplomacy, 188, 193, 202. 

Senate of the United States, organi- 
zation, 92, 93, 107, 

Serbia, 189, 191. 

Sherman, Roger, 69. 

Silesia, 191. 

Slaver>', prohibited in Northwest 
Territory, 90; abolished by the 
Thirteenth Amendment, 105. 

Slaves, fugitive, 26, 27, 90, loi, 
170,171,175. 

Slave trade, the, 96, 175. 

Smith, Adam, 154. 

Smuts, General, 194. 

Sophia, electress of Hanover, 58, 60. 



Stamp Act Congress, the, 63. 
Stephen, king of England, i. 
Suffrage, woman, 108, 193. 
Supreme Court of the United States, 
100. 

Tallagio non Concedendo, Statuium 

de, 18 and note 2. 
Taxation, control of, by popular 

assembhes, 14, 15, 18, 19, 21, 30, 

51,52,64, 71. 
Ten Hours Bill, the, 163 and note i. 
Territories of the United States, 

government of, 83. 
Tithes, aboHshed by the French 

Republic, no, 116, 118. 
Treason against the United States, 

100. 

United Colonies of New England, 
the, formation of, 22. 

United States, the, declared inde- 
pendent, 69; under the Articles 
of Confederation, 74; territories 
of, 83; under the Constitution, 91. 

Veto, power of the, 34, 35, 86, 87, 94, 

95- 
Virginia Bill of Rights, quoted, 
66-68. 

Washington, George, 91, 120, 139. 
Washington's Farewell Address, 

quoted, 120-135. 
William III, king of England, 50, 

S3, 54, 58, 149- 
Wilson, Woodrow, 187, 190, 192, 

194. 
Wilson's Fourteen Points, quoted, 

187-189. 



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